The Exterminators
by Bill K
Summary: A quirk of fate deposits NeoSailor Moon in a dystopian future. The senshi must travel into the past to save the life of the one person who can set things right.
1. Pluto's Plea

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 1: "Pluto's Plea"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

Sailor Moon and all related characters are (c)2006 by Naoko Takeuchi/Kodansha and Toei Animation and are used without permission, but with respect. Story is (c)2006 by Bill K. 

As always, for those only familiar with the English dub:

Usagi/Serenity/Serena

Ami/Amy

Rei/Raye

Makoto/Lita

Minako/Mina

Haruka/Amara

Michiru/Michelle

Setsuna/Trista

Mamoru/EndymionDarien

Chibi-Usa/Usa/Rini

* * *

"Happy birthday, Miss Hotaru Ma'am!" Palla-Palla sang out. 

To Hotaru's chagrin, they were in the dining hall at the time. Dining hall staff and members of the palace staff dining there turned and smiled at the young girl. Gentle amusement swelled in them when they saw the shy girl's cheeks grow crimson. Then, remembering how her friend Jun-Jun felt about birthdays, Hotaru glanced nervously at her.

"I'm good with it, Hotaru," Jun-Jun smiled, unconsciously fingering the locket she obsessively wore, the locket that contained the scrap of paper with her own birthday on it. "Don't worry."

"So you finally made it to sixteen," Usa grinned, her chin propped on one hand and a smirk on her lips. Her pink and white, extremely form-fitting body suit made her look to Hotaru like something out of a twentieth century science fiction film. At any moment she expected Usa to transform into Prince Of Space. Then Usa's expression changed to one of puzzlement. "Are you taller?"

Hotaru flushed with embarrassment again.

"She's wearing heels!" Cere-Cere exclaimed. Her friend's gold lame pants and midriff-baring top, trimmed in scarlet, made Hotaru momentarily flash back to the vibrant villainesses on the science fiction films. "Three inches!"

"Wow," gasped Jun-Jun, in green slacks and a white blouse.

"Do you like them?" Hotaru asked. "Michiru-mama gave them to me as an early birthday present."

"They're nice," Usa nodded. Hotaru had on a short skirted, long-sleeved charcoal dress and nude hose. "And so mature. Between that dress and those heels, you're so - - dare I even say it - - vixenish."

"Usa!" huffed Hotaru.

"Yeah, a little lipstick and some dark eyeshadow and Yutaka may just wet himself," smirked Cere-Cere.

"Stop teasing me!" Hotaru fumed playfully.

"They only do it because you're such an easy mark," grinned Ves-Ves, garbed in a maroon muscle shirt, shorts and boots. "You don't see them teasing me."

"Actually we do tease you," Cere-Cere told her. "You're just too dense to notice."

Hotaru took a seat at the table. Palla-Palla beamed at her, then went back to devouring her heaping bowl of sugary cereal.

"So what are your plans for today after school?" Usa asked.

"Well, I was going to spend a few hours with Haruka-papa, Michiru-mama and Setsuna-mama," Hotaru explained. She flushed again and averted her eyes, but couldn't conceal her smile. "Then Yutaka's taking me out tonight."

"Is Yutaka going to give you a present," Jun-Jun asked, "or are you going to give him one?"

"JUN!" gasped Cere-Cere. Everyone looked at her in shock except Palla-Palla, who was characteristically mystified.

"Hey, just because I'm 'the good girl' doesn't mean I don't think about it!" Jun-Jun retorted.

"You don't have to answer that, Hotaru," chuckled Usa.

"I wasn't going to," Hotaru replied, her brow furrowed.

"Well since your day sounds pretty booked up," Usa began, grinning with anticipation, "here's my gift. Happy birthday."

"Thank you, Usa," Hotaru sighed. She opened the little box and her eyes popped.

"What is it, Miss Hotaru ma'am?" Palla-Palla inquired.

"Usa, it's beautiful," Hotaru gasped softly. She removed a small chain from the box. On the chain was a jade pendant shaped like the planet Saturn.

"Oh thanks a lot, Princess!" fussed Ves-Ves. "Blow our gifts right out of the water!"

"What?" Usa asked defensively.

"We're not as rich as you! We can't compete with that!"

"I didn't know it WAS a competition!"

"I'm sure I'll like your gifts, too," Hotaru replied charitably. "Thank you, Usa. I'll wear it tonight."

"Hope it brings you luck," Usa smiled back.

Cere-Cere sighed dramatically. "Oh, I'm SO envious of you, Hotaru. You've got a boyfriend who you can spend your birthday with."

"Bet the next thing she says is 'I miss Gallan'," Ves-Ves whispered to Palla-Palla.

"I miss Gallan so," whined Cere-Cere.

Ves-Ves smirked at Palla-Palla, who giggled.

"Oh be quiet, you two!" huffed Cere-Cere.

"You've only been singing that same song for three months now," Ves-Ves barked. "Give it a rest already!"

After a quick meal and receiving her presents from the Asteroids, Hotaru accompanied the others to Classroom One.

"Do you know where Yutaka is taking you?" Usa asked as they all walked down the corridor.

"Well, I didn't want to say anything," Hotaru demurred, "but we're going to your show tonight at The Andromeda Club."

"You are? Great!" beamed Usa. "I'm going to have to dedicate a song to you two now!"

"Usa, don't," Hotaru grimaced shyly.

"Let's see," the Princess pondered openly, "what's the most romantic ballad I know?"

"I knew I shouldn't have said anything," fretted Hotaru.

"You know," Jun-Jun said, leaning close to Hotaru's ear, "if you really want her to back off, all you have to do is invite the King and Queen along."

"YOU SHUT UP!" Usa shouted, swinging playfully at her. "That's a royal command!"

"Yes, Princess," Jun-Jun snickered while Hotaru and the others twittered with laughter.

* * *

As Hotaru prepared for her date, the Princess headed out for a last minute shopping trip and the King busied himself with city management conferences, Queen Serenity was returning from an impromptu tour of one of the residential neighborhoods of the city-state. From time to time, often on a whim, the Queen would suddenly decide to travel to a part of the city and visit with the people, unscheduled and unannounced. It was a treat for the people - - Queen Serenity had the status of a celebrity among the common people and many drew great pleasure just from seeing her or touching her hand. The fact that she would often stop and talk to several of them, chatting them up about their lives, was akin to being blessed to the people.

As a concession to her senshi, Serenity would always allow one of them to accompany her on her trips, as a bodyguard. She never felt it was necessary, but acquiesced, in her words, "to keep Rei from yelling at me". The others insisted, for they knew that even though Serenity was widely loved, she was not universally loved.

As it so happened, Rei was the one senshi available this time.

"Wasn't that just so much fun, Rei?" Serenity squealed, the cheers and sighs of the crowd following her. The crowd itself would have followed her, but they'd passed the security perimeter around the palace and it blocked them off.

"You've got a way about you," Rei replied admiringly. It never ceased to amaze her what an uplifting effect Serenity had on the common people. "I think you do more for the morale of this city than any of Endymion's governmental programs."

"Sometimes all a person really wants is to know somebody else cares," Serenity shrugged. "To know they're not alone in their burden can be the one thing that helps them shoulder it more easily."

"Still, even you can take it too far," Rei added. "The way you slobbered all over that poor woman's baby . . ."

"I DID NOT slobber!" fussed Serenity.

"And I wasn't sure you were going to give that baby back," Rei needled. "And neither was his mother."

"Welllll," Serenity grimaced with chagrin. "He was just so cute! I wouldn't have minded a bit keeping him. But I'd never do that to another person."

"I know," Rei smiled. Then her eyes narrowed. "And then there was the ice cream."

"He wanted to give me a gift," huffed Serenity. "It would have been rude to refuse."

"You ate twelve."

"He insisted!"

"Yeah, I could see how hard he had to bend your arm," Rei scowled. "By the twelfth one he was probably wondering if you were going to put him out of business."

Serenity turned and stuck her tongue out at the priest.

"Hey, Mom!" Usa tossed over her shoulder as the girl buzzed passed the two older women, through the front gate and into the palace. "Hi, Aunt Rei!"

"Usa, you almost ran us over!" huffed the queen.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Rei asked.

"Yeah, Aunt Rei!" the teen exclaimed. "You're the best!"

"What was she looking for?" Serenity asked.

"'The perfect love ballad', in her exact words," Rei replied. Serenity was confused, a not unusual state. "Hotaru and Yutaka are attending her show tonight. Since it's Hotaru's birthday, she wanted to dedicate a special love ballad to them."

"Oh, that's sweet!" gushed the queen.

"So I hooked her up with this little place I know. Kuzawa-San sells downloads of lyric files, among other things, and has probably the largest catalog of songs in the world - - probably bigger than Endymion's. He's got everything that was ever published, from the most popular standards to that junk Minako recorded. I figured if anyone could help her, Kuzawa-San could."

"Maybe I can pry Endymion out of his computer room and we can see the show tonight," Serenity said with a feline grin.

"No," Rei quickly advised.

"But Rei!"

"It's Hotaru's special night. You being there will just make Usa nervous."

"But Rei!" the queen whined. "I love listening to Usa sing!"

"No, Serenity!"

"Reiiiiiii!"

The priest glared at the queen.

"You never let me do anything I want to do!" Serenity huffed, her arms folded sternly over her chest.

"Oh, stop it. Next I'll be changing your diaper," Rei muttered. She got another tongue volley for her trouble.

Usa steamed down the corridor toward her room. Unknown to Rei and Serenity, she had two missions she'd accomplished. The first was obtaining the song. The second was purchasing a gift for Setsuna to give to the birthday girl. Since Setsuna wouldn't leave the door of time, Usa volunteered to make the purchase once Setsuna decided on a gift.

That in itself had been a laborious process for the normally decisive Sailor Pluto.

"Diana!" Usa called out upon entering her quarters. Diana had agreed to fill in at the Door of Time to allow Setsuna to attend Hotaru's birthday celebration at home. "I'm back! Are you ready to go?"

"I've been ready for an hour," Diana replied in her throaty purr of a voice. The smoke gray cat wandered leisurely from the closet into the room. Usa wrinkled her nose at the cat and her mild reproach. "Did you select an appropriate song?"

"That's what took so long," Usa alibied, placing the song on the desk. "I had to find the song that was just right. What do you think?"

Diana leaped up onto the desk and looked the song over.

"I can't say that I'm familiar with this piece," Diana said. "However, I don't follow music that closely, so don't go by that."

"I'm not surprised you don't know it," Usa smiled. "I only heard it for the first time in the shop. It was first recorded in 2166 by Mai Shimura and Hojo Narita. Diana, it was the most popular song of the whole year, and the next one! Oh, and if you heard them sing it, you'd understand why." Usa shivered involuntarily. "If I can just come close to the way they did it, Yutaka might propose to Hotaru that very moment!"

Diana replied with a cynical look.

Minutes later the pair were passing through the dimensional phase that separated the real world with the limbo surrounding the Door of Time.

"I wish I could visit longer with Puu," sighed Usa.

"Why can't you?" Diana asked.

"Because she's got to be with Hotaru. This is Hotaru's day, not mine. Besides, I need to practice my phrasing on that song. I want it to be JUST RIGHT!"

"Yes, one false note and Yutaka may be proposing to the maintenance robot," Diana replied with a cynical leer.

"Gee, one more thing you've inherited from your mother," Usa shot back. "Her cutting wit."

"Hush," the gray cat scowled.

As they moved through the mists of the temporal limbo, Usa and Diana could see the hazy outline of the Door of Time. However, the closer they got, the more they realized that the picture was incomplete.

"Puu?" Usa called out. There was no answer. "Puu, where are you?"

Diana ran forward. "Princess, there's no one here!"

"That can't be! Puu would never leave her post! We had to practically blackmail her to get her to go to Hotaru's party!"

"Nevertheless," Diana began, then was seized by an idea. The cat turned and ran off into the mists.

"Diana?" Usa called out.

"Stay there, Princess! I know my way about the mists! You don't!"

Anxious moments passed as the teen waited for her cat to return. Finally her burden was eased by Diana's reappearance. The cat had an ornate box with her, carrying it with the handle in her mouth. She set the case down and pawed open the latches.

"Thankfully they're all here," Diana said. Usa recognized the contents of the case as the collection of time keys. "Perhaps Sailor Pluto has traveled into time for some reason."

"Maybe we better tell Mom and Dad," Usa frowned.

"Perhaps you're right," Diana concurred.

The pair passed back through the dimensional phase into reality. However it was not the reality they'd left. The sky was a dismal gray. The sun was covered by a shroud. Where once the Palace of Crystal Tokyo stood, now there was only a jutting mound of dirt and rock gouged from the land and stuck into a body of water Usa dimly recognized as Juuban Park lake. Around her, the city was devastated, beaten to pieces by war and disaster.

"D-Diana?" Usa began. It was like being in the middle of a nightmare.

"I-I don't know, Princess," the cat stammered. "It's as if reality itself has shifted. I recognize fragments of this place as Tokyo, but it isn't our Tokyo."

"Did we accidentally travel to some alternate future?"

"Doubtful. We'd have had to pass through the Door of Time to accomplish that."

"My Lady," they heard Sailor Pluto gasp from behind them. Turning, both Usa and Diana found Sailor Pluto on her knees, holding herself up only by gripping her Ruby Orb Staff. She seemed ghostly and not all there.

"Puu?" Usa gasped. "What happened to you? What happened to everything?"

"Let me explain, My Lady, please!" Pluto gasped out desperately. "I have little time left!" Pluto gathered herself, even as her physical form shimmered and began to dissipate. "I am held prisoner here on Earth. This form you see is a past self. I have come to warn you! The past has been violated! Your mother, the Queen, has been struck down at age four. That single act has undone everything!"

"Mama!" Usa gasped, horrified.

"Go back, My Lady!" Pluto said, fading faster with every moment. "Protect your mother! Prevent what has been done! Everything depends upon you!" With her last bit of energy, Pluto forced the Ruby Orb to glow. A black shape began to materialize before them. "You will need this - - this and your power and glory as the Princess - - and future queen of - - Crystal Tokyo."

And with that Sailor Pluto faded from view. Left in her place was Luna-P.

Continued in Chapter 2


	2. Whom Thou Once Named Friend

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 2: "Whom Thou Once Named Friend"

By Bill K.

"Puu?" the Princess Usagi frantically called out to the faded image of Sailor Pluto. "PUU!"

"She's gone, Princess," Diana observed softly. "Whatever dire fate she was warning us of has apparently overtaken her as well."

"But it can't be!" Usa wailed. "She said Mom was - - was dead!"

"It would explain this strange environment we've ended up in," Diana replied. "Perhaps it would be best to return to the Door of Time and act upon Sailor Pluto's warning."

"But Diana, why weren't we affected? If Mom's dead, I shouldn't even be alive!"

Diana released a sigh of frustration. "I'm hardly as expert as Mizuno-San or Sailor Pluto, Princess, but I do possess a little understanding of chronol workings. The spacial limbo that houses the Door of Time is an area of space set apart from the passage of time. Events in the temporal world do not affect the spacial limbo. Since we were in the spacial limbo when all of this occurred, we were spared being, well, 'revised' by whatever changed history. Unfortunately its made you a temporal anomaly - - possibly myself as well."

"Then we need to fix it," Usa resolutely proclaimed. She stood up on the great mound of earth that reached up to the phase point into the spacial limbo.

"Halt, human!" came a loud demand. They looked down and saw a man approaching the mound. He seemed about thirty and wore a protective white radiation suit. "You are in violation of Primary Directive 3. You will surrender yourself immediately."

"Who's that?" hissed Usa.

"I don't know," Diana replied, "but I dare say we shouldn't let him interfere with our mission. Get to the phase point, quickly!"

Usa and Diana turned and broke for the phase point. It was only two meters away, but in the space of Usa taking a single step, the strange man was upon her. He snatched at her arm and locked on with a grip of steel.

"Hey! Let go!" Usa howled. Instinctively her free hand extended, ready to change into Sailor Moon.

From out of nowhere, a whip snapped around the strange man's throat. The whip pulled taut, then jerked once and snapped the man's head from his shoulders. Initially horrified, Usa and Diana's reaction swiftly changed to amazement. Rather than blood, electrical connections snapped and spat from the trunk. They looked down at the severed head, bouncing away. Wires and circuits trailed from its neck and the man's expression was frozen in place. Quickly Usa followed along the trail of the whip and her eyes locked onto its owner.

"Ves-Ves!" Usa exclaimed happily. "God, I've never been happier to see someone in my life! How did you survive? Are the others with you?"

"Do I know you?" Ves-Ves growled, her eyebrow arched.

Usa became confused. Then she noticed Ves-Ves was dressed in her Dead Moon Circus costume. With that, it hit her: No Queen Serenity, so no one to make the Amazoness Quartet into senshi. Her being filled with wariness, but it was disarmed by one of those cocky smirks that was so Ves-Ves.

"Oh, by the way - - surprise."

A single instinctive warning told Usa someone was behind her. She turned just in time to see Cere-Cere hovering behind her. Then Cere-Cere blew some flower pollen from her palm. The dust engulfed Usa's head. Recoiling, the girl choked and coughed for several moments. Then the world began to spin. The last thing she recalled was falling to her knees and wondering why.

She woke up in the bowels of an ancient building. Usa took a few moments to try to orient her thoughts, for the gap in consciousness was confusing. Her surroundings were strange and her body didn't seem to want to respond.

"Diana?" Usa murmured. There was no answer, at least from the gray cat.

"Sleeping Beauty's awake," muttered a voice that sounded like Jun-Jun.

As her eyes took in the scene before her, memories came rushing back and dispelled the confusion. Sitting around her on chairs or exposed cross-studs or on the floor itself were her friends, but her friends wearing the ominous skins of the Amazoness Quartet. Usa's eyes went from one to the other and instantly recognized traits that had long been dead in the girls she knew: The aloof disdain of Cere-Cere, the brash callousness of Jun-Jun, the aggressive belligerence that characterized Ves-Ves, and the immature selfishness of Palla-Palla. By now the Princess could feel the old metal pipe pressing into her back and the rope that held her wrists behind it and cut into the delicate skin. Diana was nowhere to be found.

"Where is this place?" Usa asked, trying to keep her fear and anger under control. "Where's Diana?"

"We'll ask the questions," Jun-Jun scowled. "You're pretty well dressed. That's rare for a human. You part 'droid?"

"Droid?" Usa asked.

"Android, Sweetie," Cere-Cere replied imperiously. "Don't play dumb. Although from the looks of you, you're probably not playing."

"If you're not a cyborg, what are you doing here?" Jun-Jun demanded.

"I'm," Usa began, wondering how much she should reveal. "I'm a time-traveler."

"Yeah, and I'm Queen Neherenia," scowled Ves-Ves.

"No, let her finish," Jun-Jun interjected. She seemed piqued by the story. "Time-traveler from where? What era?"

"Is this 2997?" Usa asked. Jun-Jun nodded. "Then I'm from this time - - technically. But something happened when I was out of the time stream! It changed something in the past and now everything is different!"

"Palla-Palla wants to play with her!" Palla-Palla shouted. She sounded like a petulant five-year-old, though Usa knew she was still as deadly as if she held a loaded blaster.

"Shut up!" snapped Jun-Jun. "You're telling me that you come from a-a time that's different from this? That doesn't have to contend with Viluy's androids?"

"Viluy? Is that what happened? How did she gain control?"

"Sometimes I wonder myself," spat Ves-Ves. "This whole place has been one rude awakening."

"How did you four get here? Shouldn't you be in Brasilia?"

Instantly Cere-Cere moved in. She bent down to Usa, eyes narrow and deadly serious, her soft mouth thin and scowling.

"How did you know we were from Brasilia?" the scarlet-tressed girl hissed.

"In my time," Usa responded cautiously, "we're all friends. You four live in the palace with me and-and Hotaru."

Jun-Jun rocked back, stunned. "We live in a palace?"

"Ooh, Palla-Palla wants to see the palace!" Palla-Palla exclaimed. "Does it have kings and queens and a dragon?"

"Tell me - - you mentioned Queen Neherenia earlier," Usa asked. "Did she recruit you for the circus?"

"Yes," Cere-Cere replied, clearly loathing to remember the times. "She said we could stay young forever. All we needed to do was help her overthrow Queen Beryl."

"It was tough work, but in the end her generals were no match for Neherenia and the Gold Crystal," Ves-Ves recalled. Then she grew angry and hateful. "And what did we get for it? She turned on us! Cast us into her mirrors! We were stuck there for centuries, it turned out! But she got hers."

"Golden. . .?" Usa whispered. "This golden crystal? Where did she get it?"

"From the horsie with wings!" Palla-Palla squealed with juvenile exuberance. "He was ever so pretty! Palla-Palla wanted him for her very own!"

"And," Usa continued, struggling to find her voice, "and what happened to the horse with wings?"

"Queen Neherenia played with him," Palla-Palla responded gaily. Then her lower lip extended in a pout. "At least until she broke him. Then she didn't want him anymore."

The words struck the Princess like blows from a hammer. For a moment she lost all conscious feeling in her body. It was like she disconnected right then and there. All she could focus on was the horrifying mental image of Neherenia standing over Pegasus - - her Pegasus - - as the equine's lifeless eyes stared up at her.

"Were you friends?" Cere-Cere asked with false sweetness. Usa looked up at the girl and saw she was enjoying every moment of Usa's pain. "Don't worry, Neherenia paid for everything she did."

"From what we've been able to gather," Jun-Jun continued, "Neherenia got too cocky and didn't realize there was a rebel growing right under her nose. Some lady named Viluy was building an android army. Or she was too busy being attacked by some lady called Sailor Galaxia. Those two fought for decades - - tore the planet up. Neherenia finally beat Galaxia, then Viluy and her androids stepped in and took over." Jun-Jun allowed herself a satisfied smile. "We watched those androids tear Neherenia to pieces from our mirrors."

"And," Usa stammered, still preoccupied with visions of the death of Helios, "and the world has been run by androids ever since?"

"Ever since the ice melted," shrugged Ves-Ves. Usa looked at her curiously. "Planet's been covered in ice for about nine hundred and fifty years or so. I don't know how, but it was frozen for a long time. Took a meteor impact in central Asia to kick-start the world again and shatter enough ice that humanity could melt the rest." Usa stared at her, astounded. "You see a lot when you're stuck in a mirror for nine hundred plus years," Ves-Ves dead-panned.

"Well it doesn't have to be this way!" Usa pleaded. "Let me go! I can go back in time and fix what happened! None of this has to be this way!"

"That's assuming we believe you," Jun-Jun smiled a predator's grin. Usa felt a sick dread in her stomach. "Who says this whole story of yours isn't just a lie to get us to turn you loose?"

"It's not!" Usa wailed.

"I say we torture the truth out of her," Jun-Jun continued, glancing to her sisters.

"Sounds like fun," Cere-Cere commented casually.

"I've got nothing better to do," Ves-Ves replied.

"Ooh, Palla-Palla likes torture!" Palla-Palla squealed.

Mentally the Princess began taking stock of her options. She could still transform into Sailor Moon, but with her hands tied there was little chance she could free herself before one or more of the Amazons used their ball attacks on her. Reasoning with them hadn't worked. And the teen couldn't brainstorm any other options in the waning moments she had left.

And then a shape suddenly loomed behind Palla-Palla's head. It was Luna-P.

Out of the darkened staircase behind the Amazons, Diana leaped onto the nearest one. Cere-Cere recoiled, screaming hysterically as claws sunk into her flesh. Her hand moved up to swat the attacking feline away, but was met with sharp teeth that plunged into the soft skin. Finally she managed to shake Diana and the cat landed on all fours in the center of the group.

"YOU BIT ME, YOU FILTHY LITTLE BEAST!" Cere-Cere hissed. "I'll KILL you for that!"

"Back off," sneered Ves-Ves. "I'm the beast tamer in this bunch."

With lightning speed, Ves-Ves brought her whip into play. It cracked on the floor, kicking up particles of concrete as Diana just managed to leap over it. However, she couldn't look in every direction and a hard blue ball launched by Palla-Palla struck her in mid-leap. Sent off course, she was the perfect target for a savage kick from Jun-Jun. The cat bounced once on the concrete floor and struggled to get up as the four Amazons moved in.

During the melee, Luna-P had sought out its programmed mistress. Tearing herself away from watching Diana, Usa glanced up at the ball.

"Luna-P transform!" she whispered desperately. "Become a-a laser scalpel!"

In a puff of smoke, the ball transformed into a thin metallic cylinder ten inches long and fell into Usa's hand. The girl manipulated it until the control stud was against her thumb and the red crystal point was pressed against the rope binding her wrists.

Several blows later, Diana lay on the cold cement and couldn't get up. She glanced up through a red haze at her tormentors.

"Who wants to kill it?" Ves-Ves asked.

"PALLA-PALLA DOES!" the girl squealed with excitement.

"Go ahead," sneered Cere-Cere. "It's just an animal."

A blue ball appeared between Palla-Palla's extended hands. The joy and anticipation was vibrant in her child-like demeanor. Diana steeled herself for the end, praying only that the Princess had enough time to escape.

"Moon Crystal Power Make Up!"

The four Amazons turned to the sound of Usa's voice and Jun-Jun was met with a foot in her face. Palla-Palla stared dumbstruck, while Cere-Cere squealed and retreated and Ves-Ves growled angrily.

"A Sailor Senshi?" Jun-Jun sputtered. "But how?"

"Who cares!" snapped Ves-Ves. "Get her!"

"Moon Tiara Action!" Sailor Moon trumpeted, invoking her tiara into its energy disk form. Without hesitation she launched it at the quartet. The energy sphere arced and buzzed in, around and through them with lightning speed. Quickly the Amazoness Quartet were ducking and dodging the golden disk in confusion. That allowed Sailor Moon to produce the Moon Scepter.

"Moon Princess Halation!" Sailor Moon called out, firmly and without hesitation, for Diana was her friend and these four had proven that they weren't - - not in this incarnation anyway.

Pink tendrils fanned out from the scepter, seizing the delinquent shades of her friends. The four struggled mightily in the grip of the scepter's healing power, struggled for the longest time against what Sailor Moon was trying to do. But ultimately they were overcome by the superior power she possessed. The four stiffened in the grip of the tendrils, each one exclaiming "refresh" as a breathy sigh, almost as a temporary release from the wickedness that had possessed their souls. Then they collapsed limply to the ground. Instantly Sailor Moon ran up to the fallen Diana.

"Diana, how badly did they hurt you?" Sailor Moon pleaded.

"Badly enough, I fear," Diana gasped. "Perhaps you should go on without me."

"No way!" Sailor Moon howled. "Diana, you're my friend! No way am I leaving you!"

"The world needs your attention more than I," the gray cat choked out. "Follow Sailor Pluto's advice. Fix the world."

"No! No way do I leave you to die! I need you! Besides, you know the limbo a lot better than I do! We need to do this together!"

"I . . ." the cat began, but Sailor Moon cut her off.

"No more arguments," she said, brandishing the Moon Scepter. "Moon Princess Halation."

Diana felt the waves of energy from the Moon Scepter wash over her, filling her with their soft, warming caress. She felt pain subside, bones mend and bruises dissipate. She felt the spark of her soul kindle into a flame that seemed to energize her entire body. Where only moments before she couldn't muster the strength to move her head, now she sprang up to her feet hale and hearty.

And Sailor Moon sank to one knee next to her.

"Sailor Moon?" Diana gasped.

"Wow," Sailor Moon wheezed, holding her forehead. "I haven't been this dizzy since Aunt Minako took me on the roller coaster."

"You haven't hurt yourself, have you?" Diana asked desperately.

"No," Sailor Moon panted. "But doing that takes a lot out of a person."

"Stubborn, stubborn child," Diana admonished. "Will you never listen to reason?"

"Watch it, Diana," Sailor Moon smirked. "I know where your ticklish spots are."

"Hmph, well, when you're sufficiently recovered, perhaps it would be best to return to the limbo and into the past. I've had quite enough of this present."

Sailor Moon rose to her feet. To Diana, she seemed a little tired, but none the worse for wear.

"Then let's do it," she proclaimed.

Outside, the pair sprinted toward the mound in the lake, the mound that they knew would lead to the limbo housing the Door of Time. As they ran, they each tried their best to ignore the destruction and decay surrounding them. Husks of buildings and streets broken and abandoned from years of war and struggle and then centuries buried in ice were all they could see for miles around. Civilization, as it could broadly be called, was in dire straits.

From their right, Sailor Moon suddenly spotted another person sprinting toward them. At first she thought he was human, but there was too much of a resemblance to the android that attacked them earlier.

"Luna-P, scan!" Sailor Moon shouted at the ball trailing them. "Is that a human?"

Luna-P scanned the approaching humanoid. Her eyes blinked twice for 'no'. Instantly Sailor Moon ripped off her tiara.

"Moon Tiara Action!" she cried. While her scepter power would be useless against a machine, the energy of her tiara would be a formidable weapon. The energy disk sailed straight and true, arcing to trace the android as it shifted to dodge. The disk sliced through the android's upper torso, cleaving it from the rest of its body. Both halves went crashing into the broken pavement.

Turning a corner, though, the Princess found herself in for a surprise. Dozens of men surrounded the dirt mound and were taking readings in and around it. There was no reason not to assume, given what she'd learned from the Amazoness Quartet, that these weren't actually androids under the control of Viluy.

"Gracious," fretted Diana. "There's far too many. We must retreat until they've gone."

"And what makes you think they're going to go away?" Sailor Moon replied through clenched teeth. "Besides, we don't have time to wait for them to abandon the place. We need to get back into the past and set things right!"

"My lady, that's a common misconception about time travel," Diana advised her. "Whether we leave now or ten years from now, the Door of Time can place us in any moment of history we choose. It's merely a question of calculating the relative time/space differential."

"And suppose while we're waiting, Viluy gains access to the temporal limbo?" Sailor Moon countered. "I've talked to Aunt Ami about her. This woman is as sharp as anyone who's ever lived!" Sailor Moon glanced back. "We're going to have to fight our way through, and now, before they can gain access to the Door of Time!"

"Can you do that? Your Princess Halation won't have any effect on mechanical men!"

"There isn't much choice, is there?" Sailor Moon mumbled and the gray feline could see her courage waver for just an instant. Then she pushed doubts aside. "They'll probably all come after me. You get to the Door of Time and make whatever preparations you need for the jump. Luna-P, follow Diana!"

Before Diana could protest, Sailor Moon burst from concealment and charged the mound. Without recourse, the cat followed. As Sailor Moon cut through the converging androids, her tiara energy disk slashing and weaving like a glittering golden scythe, the cat darted in, around and through the synthetic humanoids' legs. She didn't look back, for fear of seeing something terrible, though the continued impact of the tiara with severed electronic circuits told her Sailor Moon was still coming. Gaining the top of the mound, she turned and looked back - - and her heart sank.

The tiara lay motionless on the ground. The three remaining androids were carrying off an unconscious Sailor Moon.

Continued in Chapter 3


	3. Where Humanity Ends

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 3: "Where Humanity Ends"

By Bill K.

Sailor Moon regained consciousness quickly, but it didn't do her much good. Her arms were held in the twin grips of androids that possessed more strength and tighter grips that any normal human being. It didn't stop her from struggling in the synthetic humanoids' grasp, but she didn't get very far.

The androids took her to a large, monolithic building in the geographic center of Tokyo. Sailor Moon barely could recognize the city, but she thought it was the spot where Naru Park and part of the retail district had been in the real world.

Her real world.

Fighting all the way, Sailor Moon was carried to a grid marked off in a rectangle by clear panels inset into the floor, and thrown into the center of it. The girl didn't understand what purpose the panels served, and right then didn't care. Despite her fatigue, she scrambled to her feet and lunged in the opposite direction of the androids. She took two steps before she hit the energy field. After receiving a very painful shock, Sailor Moon recoiled and fell onto her back in the holding grid.

"Four walls do not a prison make," she heard a woman say. "Certainly not when an energy field is much more efficient."

Fighting through her haze, Sailor Moon turned to the sound. The woman's footfalls were metal on metal, ringing ever louder as she casually approached. Sailor Moon's eyes bulged. The woman had platinum blonde hair falling to her shoulders in a large leisurely curl. She had one ice blue eye looking contemptuously down from the human half of her face. The other eye was infra-red. The other half of her face and her entire body gleamed of chrome. Pneumatic servos hissed when she stepped or moved an arm. She exuded weight and power, but little humanity.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the woman said. "I am known as Viluy. As long as you remain here, you will comply in every manner asked of you and truthfully answer any question put to you." Her infra-red eye seemed to glow more brightly. "I'll know when you're lying and you won't like the consequences."

"Y-You're a-a cyborg!" Sailor Moon gasped.

"Very good," Viluy scowled. "Now if you're done stating the obvious - - imagine my surprise . . ."

"Who did that to you?" Sailor Moon asked, visibly horrified.

"I did it to myself," Viluy replied proudly, "with the help of my androids and some knowledge I gained."

"You what? Cybernetic technology was banned in the early 23rd century except under strict governmental supervision! People were turning themselves into monsters!"

"What you consider a 'monstrosity'," Viluy bristled, "I consider an upgrade. I have significantly reduced any human frailties and weaknesses that would hamper my work." She leaned in, glaring at the young teen. "Don't think I haven't had to spend all of my life listening to uninformed superstition such as you've just spouted at me. Visionaries have always been ridiculed by intellectual inferiors." Then she smiled in triumph. "But they're mostly dead now and I'm still here. Now where was I? Oh, yes. Imagine my surprise at seeing an actual Sailor Senshi. I thought you'd all been destroyed."

"Destroyed?"

"Didn't study your history?" Viluy smiled superiorly. "Sailor Mars, Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter died in the Arctic. They were destroyed by Queen Beryl. For a time, there were three others named after Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. They managed to foil plans I was involved in by killing that little Tomoe brat."

"H-Hotaru," Sailor Moon choked out.

"Yes," Viluy replied, keenly observing Sailor Moon's reaction. "They then got mixed up in the war between Beryl and Queen Neherenia and were destroyed themselves. Now which one are you? I suppose it's Saturn. It's the only planet left . . ."

"My name is Sailor Moon," the pink-tressed senshi hissed angrily. "Respect it!"

"Sailor Moon?" Viluy replied and the senshi could see the shock and outrage on the human side of her face. "Impossible! I," and then she stopped and looked closer at her prisoner. "It's been so long. I didn't realize it at first. But I see the resemblance." Viluy's mouth firmed up. "How did you get here?"

"The stork brought me," Sailor Moon huffed.

"Aerodynamically impossible, if nothing else," Viluy smiled wickedly. "You're a lot more defiant than the Sailor Moon I used to know. But all defiance merits is punishment."

With that the energy walls of her holding cubicle began to close in around her. Sailor Moon retreated from the closing wall before her until she realized that she was quickly running out of space to retreat to. Nervously she waited as the energy walls drew closer to her, fearful of the pain she knew they would visit. But she didn't cry out.

For she wasn't just a pampered princess. She was a senshi and senshi didn't do that.

"Nnnnnnn!" Sailor Moon moaned as the energy walls closed around her and set her skin to sizzling. She wanted to give vent to more, to scream to the heavens the agony she felt. It was like every nerve in her body was on fire. Pain was everywhere until it became so massive a thing that she couldn't even identify it as pain, from lack of reference.

And then it was over. Sailor Moon slumped to the floor, barely conscious, shuddering from her experience. The girl was searching her mind, momentarily trying to remember how to speak.

"Not used to that level of pain?" Viluy commented dryly. "And that was only five seconds. Imagine what a full minute would do to you. Now answer the question - - how did you get . . .?"

"Number One," an android called out, addressing Viluy. With difficulty, Sailor Moon pulled herself up to a sitting position and looked. "By the terms of Order 3, any human demonstrating abnormal powers or tendencies is to be brought immediately to you for study."

To her surprise, Sailor Moon saw the androids were holding Palla-Palla. The Amazon was thrashing wildly but ineffectually in the grip of the synthetic men. Viluy left Sailor Moon and walked over to them. Immediately Palla-Palla stopped and watched Viluy approach. The girl's face was a collage of terror, anger, and desperation. She tried to cringe away from the fearsome look of the cyborg scientist, but the androids held her in place.

"Ah, you're one of the Amazoness Quartet, I believe," Viluy spoke with cheshire confidence. "Your little band has managed to cause more disruption to my plans for this world than any organized resistance normal humanity has been able to mount." Palla-Palla tried to erect a wall of defiance, but she wasn't succeeding. "I've noticed that you four seem to possess some extraordinary abilities. Perhaps you'd care to enlighten me as to how you came to possess such abilities?"

Palla-Palla only stared at her for a few moments, hopelessly confused by Viluy's query. Then her fear welled up into anger.

"You better let Palla-Palla go!" the girl bellowed with childlike false bravado. "Or Palla-Palla will make you sorry!"

Her words only served to change Viluy's expression from superior interest to cold contempt.

"Clearly mentally retarded," Viluy scowled. "There's nothing to be gained by studying the likes of you." She turned to one of the androids. "Kill her."

Like a flash of lightning, the android's hand shot out. Before the horror of what Viluy had commanded could even dawn on the observing Princess, Palla-Palla hung limply from the grip of the two androids, her broken neck bent at a gruesome angle and her glassy eyes staring in shock. The androids carried the body off to be disposed of. Viluy turned her attention back to Sailor Moon.

"How could you do that?" Sailor Moon demanded, shocked and repulsed by what she had witnessed.

"And what was the point of keeping her alive?" Viluy asked point-blank. "She offered nothing of value to society. She was intellectually inferior to even a run of the mill human."

"She was a living, breathing person!" Sailor Moon growled angrily. "She had a beautiful soul inside of her! It was buried deep down under the corruption of Neherenia and of not knowing the love and guidance of a parent! But it was there! It could have been brought to the surface! But you just snuffed it out!"

"Sentimental rubbish," sneered Viluy.

"It's not! It's not rubbish! I've seen what it can do!"

Viluy walked right up to the energy wall of the cubicle. Sailor Moon stood defiantly.

"You must be a descendent of the original Sailor Moon," Viluy said. "You possess the same tired, useless emotionalism that she passed off as a philosophy. The question remains how did you come to this moment in time, because you have to be the biggest temporal anomaly I have ever witnessed." Then she grinned wickedly. "Aside from myself, I suppose."

"I'm not telling you anything," Sailor Moon glared.

"She doesn't have to," came a voice from behind a massive central processing core embedded in the floor at the far side of the room. It was a voice Sailor Moon recognized instantly, and for a fleeting moment she felt hope. The speaker emerged from the shadows and Sailor Moon's heart leaped. It was her. It was Ami Mizuno. "I recognize her. She's from this era before the time-line was altered. She's Usagi Tsukino's daughter, known by the appellation of Chibi-Usa."

"A-Aunt Ami?" Sailor Moon questioned, for Ami walked right up to Viluy as if they were allied. Viluy turned to the pink senshi in surprise.

"She's related to you as well, Mizuno?" Viluy asked.

"No, Villy. You've made a false assumption," Ami replied, then became deferential. "It's my fault for not explaining the situation properly. I was destined to be a surrogate parent for the child and she incorrectly assigned that name to me." Quickly Ami turned to Sailor Moon. "You have also made an incorrect assumption. I am not the original Ami Mizuno."

"Do you like her?" Viluy's human side smiled with satisfaction. "She's an android, an android so completely and perfectly programmed that you couldn't tell she wasn't the real Mizuno. One more of my creations."

"What happened to the real one?" Sailor Moon demanded. "Did you murder her, too?"

"And waste an intellect like that?" Viluy replied, aghast. "That would hardly be a logical response to the situation. Aside from myself, Mizuno was the greatest intellect the world has ever produced. It would be incredibly short-sighted to destroy a resource like that."

With that, Viluy turned to the massive computer complex behind her. It was rows of storage processors occupying an entire wall. The computer system even dwarfed her father's system, and his was the largest computer Sailor Moon had ever seen. Viluy looked up at a display monitor.

"Cyber-com," Viluy said. "Switch to interaction mode."

Onto the monitor blinked a CGI representation of Ami Mizuno's head. The woman's face seemed numb and beaten. Sailor Moon felt her stomach drop through the floor.

"That's the original Ami Mizuno," Viluy smiled proudly. "I went back into time and - - acquired her. Then I converted her neural grid into a digital map and applied it to a computer program." She noted Sailor Moon staring dumbly at the monitor. "In simplified terms, I digitalized her mind. She's now my operating system."

Tears trickled down Sailor Moon's cheeks. Viluy allowed herself a superior smirk. Then she noticed the senshi extend her hands. Suddenly the Moon Scepter appeared within them.

"Moon Princess Halation!" Sailor Moon cried.

"Do you actually think you have enough power to sunder my energy barrier?" Viluy growled. "Let's put your theory to the test!"

Grimly Sailor Moon pressed out without letting Viluy's words dissuade her. For Viluy had drawn an incorrect inference. Sailor Moon knew her Princess Halation would have little effect on the energy barrier. But if she could get enough pink energy through it and touch what little humanity was left in the cyborg before her, she might be able to solve this problem.

Pink energy radiated out from the Moon Scepter. It interacted with the invisible energy of the barrier and instantly the energy became visible. It was a semi-transparent blend of yellow and white and the cubicle became visually cut off from the world around her. Determined not to fail, Sailor Moon urged more energy from the Scepter. It in turn sought more energy from the pink crystal within Sailor Moon. There was a moment when the connection sputtered and Sailor Moon feared she would once more be inadequate to the task.

"Please!" she silently cajoled the crystal within her, through a connection she was only instinctively aware of. "Give me the strength to do this! It's not for me! Too many people are depending on me not failing! I can't leave the world in the hands of this monster! I can't let Hotaru and the senshi be dead! I can't let Aunt Ami live out her life like this!"

Almost in response, pink energy flared out from the Scepter. The barrier energy seemed to snap and pop angrily, but it seemed to be anger to hide the fear it felt. The color the barrier took on grew more transparent as Sailor Moon's energy began to leak through. Most of her attack was being contained, but not all of it.

As she struggled to maintain this level of energy expenditure, Sailor Moon locked onto Viluy. Could her power effect the cyborg? Her power had no effect on machinery or computer systems. Was there enough humanity left in Viluy to touch? Her eyes bore in on Viluy's face as sweat trickled down her temple. Viluy's cybernetic systems seemed unaffected by the pink energy. But the one ice blue eye was partially obscured by a drooping eyelid. And the human corner of her mouth seemed slightly pulled up in the merest hint of a smile. But it wasn't enough to make Viluy act to right the terrible situation she'd created.

"I wonder," Sailor Moon allowed herself to speculate. "Did any of Aunt Ami's humanity get imprinted into that computer program?"

With a subtle gesture, the pink senshi altered her energy flow and directed it toward the giant computer and the virtual representation of Ami Mizuno. The barrier still contained most of her expenditure, but some got through. Would it work? Sailor Moon felt her head pounding and knew she couldn't maintain this output for very long. Desperately she tried to shut out the pounding by thinking of everyone who meant so much to her and were now gone. There were so many friends and loved ones and she needed to see them and hold them once again.

"C-Chibi-Usa-chan," the virtual Ami whispered. Her face seemed to shift from numb defeat to distress and horror.

The barrier dropped.

Sailor Moon tried a direct hit on the sluggish Viluy with her energy, but she knew when the bolt left that it would be weak and ineffectual. All it elicited from Viluy was a contented sigh. Spurring herself on through her mounting fatigue, Sailor Moon charged the cyborg scientist. Her sudden motion seemed to shake Viluy from her lethargy, but not in time to avoid a roundhouse kick from Sailor Moon. The cyborg staggered back from the blow, but it didn't fell her.

Undaunted, Sailor Moon waded in and swung the Moon Scepter like a baseball bat. She connected with the human side of Viluy's head and dropped the cyborg where she stood. For a few seconds all the girl could do was stand over the fallen cyborg, panting with exhaustion. As she stared, she saw the platinum blonde hair was actually a wig, for it was now several feet from Viluy's round, gleaming head.

"I don't believe that's the proper way to use the Moon Scepter, My Lady," she heard Diana gently admonish. Sailor Moon turned and found both the cat and Luna-P emerging from the shadows.

"Whatever works, Diana," Sailor Moon huffed out. She wanted to move, but her body wasn't ready to obey yet.

"Gracious, is that really Mizuno-San!" Diana gasped in shock.

Sailor Moon staggered over to the computer and looked up at the screen. Tears were bubbling anew in her eyes.

"A-Aunt Ami?" she gasped out.

"Chibi-Usa-chan," the virtual Ami whispered haltingly. There was a faint sign of a smile on her virtual lips. Then her face hardened with urgency. "Go. Run. Be free."

"Is there no way to reverse this?" Diana ventured.

"No," Virtual Ami replied, while off to one side her android counterpart knelt over the fallen Viluy, pleading with her to recover. "Only hope for me is your freedom. Go. Run. Stop her."

"But Aunt Ami," Sailor Moon begged.

"Your energy," Virtual Ami smiled, "touched human side again. Thank you. Now go."

"Come along, My Lady," Diana advised. "We've still tasks ahead of us."

Sailor Moon started to follow. Then she stopped and looked back.

"I will free you, Aunt Ami," Sailor Moon vowed. "And I'll save Mom and Dad and Helios and Hotaru - - and everyone! Or I'll die trying!"

With that, she turned and fled, Diana and Luna-P at her heels.

The trek through this broken and decaying Tokyo was made mostly without incident, thanks to Luna-P's sensors and Diana's innate skills at stealth. They even managed to retrieve Sailor Moon's lost tiara along the way. When they reached the mound below the temporal nexus,  
the trio found only two androids guarding the mound and a third taking scientific readings. Sufficiently recovered enough to use it, Sailor Moon's tiara made short work of the three androids. Without further incident, Sailor Moon, Diana and Luna-P scaled the mound and disappeared into the spacial limbo.

* * *

Walking down the street, she looked ahead for the gated two story that was her second home. When she sighted it, a lump formed in her throat.

"Back home," Sailor Moon smiled to herself. She allowed herself to shift back to Usagi Chiba. "I wonder what Grandma and Grandpa look like. Are they very different from the last time I was here?"

Usa approached the gate and peered in. Playing in the front yard was a four year old girl. Her hair was spun gold, gathered at the sides of her head with thick sausage curls dangling down each side. Her chubby little hands were bouncing a ball on the sidewalk. However, they didn't seem to have much coordination to them and the ball passed through them to smack the girl on the nose. As the ball bounced away, she rubbed her nose and gave the toy a fleeting dirty look.

The song of a bird in the trees made her momentary pique melt away. Big blue eyes stared up at the bird, entranced by the wonder of nature and the beauty of its song. The girl held her hand up and the bird accepted the invitation. It flew down, perching on her hand unafraid. Warbling for a very special audience of one, it sang while the girl beamed at it.

At length the bird flew away. The cherubic young girl waved, then noticed Usa at the gate. Without a second thought, she walked right up to the gate. Flashing dimples that were almost lethal, the young girl shoved out a hand through the bars of the iron gate.

"Hello," she said in a charming squeak of a voice. "My name is Usagi. Would you like to be my friend?"

"Oh, this is too weird!" thought the terrified young princess.

Continued in Chapter 4


	4. A Present In The Past

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 4: "A Present In The Past"

By Bill K.

Usa approached the gate and peered in. Playing in the front yard was a four year old girl. Her hair was spun gold, gathered at the sides of her head with thick curls dangling down each side. Her chubby little hands were bouncing a ball on the sidewalk. However, they didn't seem to have much coordination to them and the ball passed through them to smack the girl on the nose. As the ball bounced away, she rubbed her nose and gave the toy a fleeting dirty look.

The song of a bird in the trees made her momentary pique melt away. Big blue eyes stared up at the bird, entranced by the wonder of nature and the beauty of its song. The girl held her hand up and the bird accepted the invitation. It flew down, perching on her hand unafraid. Warbling for a very special audience of one, it sang while the girl beamed at it.

At length the bird flew away. The cherubic young girl waved, then noticed Usa at the gate. Without a second thought, she walked right up to the gate. Flashing dimples that were almost lethal, the young girl shoved out a hand through the bars of the iron gate.

"Hello," she said in a charming squeak of a voice. "My name is Usagi. Would you like to be my friend?"

"Oh, this is too weird!" thought the terrified young princess.

Trailing behind the spooked princess were Diana and Luna-P. The cat noted the distress and confusion her charge had upon confronting her own mother at age four. Though she was tempted to watch and gloat, instead the cat reached out and gently nudged the pink-tressed princess on her ankle.

"OOH, look at the pretty kitty!" Usagi squealed. Her hand shot through the bars of the gate and began scratching Diana's head. Ever a sucker for a good head scratch, Diana arched her back and began purring. This seemed to shake the princess out of her stupor.

"Her name's Diana," Usa grinned, kneeling so she was at eye level with the girl. "She loves it when you scratch along her neck."

"Is she yours?" Usagi beamed.

"Let's just say she chose to bum around with me," Usa smirked and glanced at Diana. The gray cat's eye twinkled her amused response.

"I'd love to have a kitty of my own," sighed Usagi. Then her face screwed into an adorable pout. "But Mama says I'm too young. I'm not too young! I'm four!"

"And you'd be amazed at what you can do at four," Usa chuckled. "Usagi, I'd love to be your friend. Want to hear something weird? My name's Usagi, too."

"Really!" Usagi squealed and for a moment Usa saw the same joyous energy dancing in the child's big blue eyes that she still occasionally saw in her mother's.

"Tell you what, though," Usa said, her joy dimmed with recalling her mission. "I did come here for another reason. Is your mom or dad home?"

"Daddy is at work," Usagi proclaimed, proud of her ability to recall such a complex memory. "He works for a magazine. He does everything there. I heard him tell Mama that once."

"He's probably pretty good at it, too," Usa smiled, misting up around the eyes. "How about your Mom?"

"Mama's inside taking care of Shingo," Usagi told her. "Shingo is my little brother. He's two." Usagi leaned in conspiratorially. "He cries a lot. And he's a brat."

"Can I talk to your Mom, Usagi-um, chan?" Usa asked. Her mind whirled momentarily because she'd almost slipped and said Usagi-Okasan.

Usagi nodded enthusiastically, her curls bouncing and her dimpled grin reaching a new high on the "kawaii" meter.

"You wait here! I'll go get Mama!" Usagi beamed. She turned to run to the house, but stopped and turned back sheepishly. "I'd let you in myself but I can't reach the knob."

And off she flew to the house. For a moment Usa wondered if she'd hallucinated all of this and she was still laying on the floor of Viluy's lair.

"A bit much to absorb, My Lady?" Diana smirked.

"Well, yeah!" huffed the Princess. "I'm talking to my own mother and I'm twelve years OLDER than she is! I thought it was tough trying to relate to her when she was fourteen! That was nothing!" Usa sagged against the gate. "How am I going to do this?"

"You use all your training as Sailor Moon and all your strength as the Princess of Crystal Tokyo," Diana replied confidently.

"No, not that!" whined Usa. "I can't let her know who I really am! That could change everything! But it's hard to talk to her and keep track of what I'm not supposed to say!" Usa scowled. "It's because she's so damn cute! She wasn't so intimidating when she was fourteen and tripping over her own hair trails."

"My Lady," Diana sighed, "must you see the dark side of everything? You've a chance to see your mother in an entirely new light, see her at a time when everything is new and exciting! Perhaps you may even have a chance to contribute to the world-renowned icon she's to become! And you've another chance to spend time with your grandparents. Couple that with your mission and the wonderful riches this world will regain when you succeed and you've a chance for glorious and fulfilling success. And all you can do is fret."

Usa stroked the cat's back and Diana arched to meet her hand.

"I never could win an argument with you," Usa muttered playfully. "How much time do we have until Viluy's assassin arrives?"

"Enough time to get settled in," Diana replied. Then she noticed the door opening. "Ikuko is coming. Do you remember how to engage the hypnotic program in Luna-P?"

"Yeah," Usa sighed with guilt. "I wish I didn't have to hypnotize them again. I wish I could just tell Ikuko-Mama everything." Diana looked at her urgently. "Don't worry. I'll do it."

"Perhaps you could transform Luna-P into something less conspicuous?" Diana suggested.

"Yeah, right. Luna-P transform. Become a-a chain and pendant," the Princess commanded. In a puff of smoke, Luna-P transformed as commanded and Usa quickly donned the chain and black cat's head pendant.

"Hello," Ikuko said warmly as she approached the gate. However Usa noticed an undercurrent of suspicion and protectiveness for her family and hearth. She recalled earlier memories of Ikuko-Mama from previous visits. She always seemed like the ideal mother. But cross her and she became your worst nightmare. "My daughter tells me you wanted to speak with me?"

"Yeah," Usa began haltingly. "Um, the name's Usagi. I'm, um, Reika's daughter."

"My sister Reika?" Ikuko interrupted. She seemed confused and wary. "Reika doesn't have any children."

Usa emitted a resigned sigh. "Luna-P, engage hypno-program."

Kaleidoscopic light shot out from the pendant's eyes and struck the eyes of both Ikuko and Usagi. The two stood transfixed by the light, their minds blank.

"I'm your sister Reika's daughter, Usagi," Usa told Ikuko. "She called and asked if I could stay with you for a little while so she can go on this, um, extended business trip."

Once the message was concluded, Luna-P stopped transmitting the hypno-beam. Slowly conscious thought returned to Ikuko.

"Usagi-chan!" Ikuko beamed. "It's so good to see you again!" The woman leaned in and hugged Usa. The teen stiffened at first, then softened and enjoyed the embrace acquired by fraud. "My, you've gotten so big, too! You're practically a woman now!"

"Um, yeah," Usa grinned. "Say, how about we just call me 'Usa' - - so we don't confuse me with, um, with your daughter."

"That's fine," Ikuko smiled.

"And - - can I still call you 'Ikuko-Mama'?" Usa inquired timidly.

"I don't see why not." Ikuko bent down to little Usagi. "Usagi, I'd like you to meet your cousin Usa. She's going to be staying with us."

Usa glanced at Usagi - - and immediately swallowed uncomfortably. Usagi was staring up at Usa wary and afraid. Immediately Usa realized that, even at this young age, the hypno-beam had no effect on Usagi Tsukino. The girl backed away and took refuge behind Ikuko's leg.

"That's odd," Ikuko remarked. "She's usually very out-going with strangers. I usually have to warn her to be careful."

"M-Maybe I insulted her," Usa alibied. She looked down at Usagi. "I'm sorry if I did anything to scare you."

Usagi only clung tighter to her mother's leg.

"Well, let's get you settled," Ikuko said. "Oh, is that your cat?"

"Yeah," Usa replied. "It's OK if she stays with me, isn't it?"

Ikuko wavered. "I suppose so. But please keep her away from Shingo. He's only two and I wouldn't want him accidentally hurting her."

Taking charge of her guest, Ikuko led Usa and Diana inside. The entire trip, Usagi made certain to keep her mother between her and Usa at all times, much to the chagrin of the senshi in disguise.

"That's an unusual hair color, if you don't mind my saying so," Ikuko said. They opened the door to Usagi's room. "You can sleep here. Usagi can double up with her brother."

Usa instantly saw Usagi's distress.

"Um, I don't want to put Usagi out of her room," Usa quickly told her host.

"Nonsense, she'll be fine with her brother," Ikuko smiled.

"No, really. I-I wouldn't feel right about it. I can sleep on the sofa if I have to."

"I won't hear of it!"

"Ikuko-Mama, really, I don't want to be a bother. Just roll out a mat for me and I'll be fine. I insist."

"All right," Ikuko sighed. "If it's that important to you. But we'll put the mat in Shingo's room. I won't have you sleeping in the living room. And I'll see if I can get Kenji to clean up the attic and turn it into a place for you."

More memories flooded over the girl. "OK, Ikuko-Mama. I'll try not to be a burden. You let me know where I can help out."

"All right. I know. How good of a cook are you?"

Usa made a face of reluctant embarrassment.

"A girl your age and you don't know how to cook?" clucked Ikuko. "How do you expect to get a boyfriend?" She turned to Usagi. "Go and play, dear. And check in on your brother."

"What if his diaper's stinky?" huffed Usagi.

"Usagi, your brother hasn't worn a diaper in almost a year," Ikuko sighed. "Go and check on him."

"Yes, Mama," Usagi frowned glumly. She wandered off, but before she disappeared into the next room, she shot a wary glance at Usa again.

"Come one, Usa, I'll show you a few kitchen basics. You'll need this if you ever want to get a boyfriend."

"I've already got a boyfriend," Usa replied, falling into an easy rapport with her grandmother, "and he doesn't care how I cook."

"Really?" Ikuko smiled. "He sounds special. You're going to have to tell me all about him now. What's his name?"

"Helios," Usa admitted before thinking better of it.

"That's an odd name," Ikuko remarked. "Is he Greek?"

"Um, yeah."

"And he lives in Japan?"

"No. We, um, he visits - - sometimes."

"A long distance romance?" Ikuko said sympathetically. She patted the girl's shoulder. "It must be hard for you."

"You can say that again," the teen sighed openly.

That evening, Kenji arrived home from the magazine where he was photo editor. Ikuko met him in the hall, ushering Usa into the hall with her.

"Well, we've got a guest!" Kenji remarked. He was still the bespeckled, amiable everyman that Usa fondly remembered. If anything, he seemed to have even more upbeat energy than before.

"Kenji, this is Usa," Ikuko explained. Suddenly the phone rang. "Oh, who could that be?" Ikuko scowled in annoyance and left them to answer it. "She'll be staying with us! She's Reika's daughter!" Ikuko called over her shoulder as she went into the other room.

"Your sister, Reika?" Kenji asked after her, clearly confused. "Hon', this girl has to be sixteen or seventeen! Reika's younger than you are!"

Usa grimaced. "Luna-P, engage hypno-program." The beam shot out from the pendant's eyes and struck Kenji, rendering him blank and motionless.

"NO!" shrieked Usagi, running out from concealment. "Leave my Daddy alone!"

The girl grabbed Kenji's pant leg and frantically tugged on him. Usa felt so bad that she wanted to crawl into a hole, but knew how essential it was to the mission she was on. In an attempt to ease the four-year-old's fears, Usa started to bend to her. However she only succeeded in spooking the child further.

"MAMA!" the terrified child screamed, racing into the kitchen.

"Man, can I possibly make this any worse?" groaned Usa. "Kenji, I'm Reika's daughter. You've known about me for years."

No sooner had Kenji snapped back to lucidity then Usagi returned, followed by a confused Ikuko.

"Mama, stop her! She's doing something to Daddy!" howled Usagi, pointing a chubby finger at Usa. Ikuko looked the situation over and saw nothing abnormal. Her expression clouded over. A frown stole onto her mouth.

"Usagi," the woman sighed. "Don't make up stories."

"I'm not making it up, Mama!" Usagi tearfully protested.

"I don't know why you don't like Usa, honey," Ikuko continued sternly. "It's your choice to make. But making up stories about people isn't right."

"Ikuko-Mama, don't!" Usa sobbed suddenly, taking everyone by surprise. "Usagi isn't making up things!"

All eyes turned toward the teen and she felt a hot flush through her body. She struggled to know what to say and what not to.

"Look, maybe," Usa struggled, "maybe Usagi saw me do - - something - - and-and misinterpreted it and thought I was hurting Kenji-Papa. But don't accuse her of making things up! Don't do that to a kid! If you do, they may never know if they can trust you to believe in them again!"

An awkward silence filled the room. For a moment Usa felt like she was swirling down a drain.

"Maybe I better go," she sobbed, turning for the door. "I don't want to cause any trouble."

The girl fled for the door, passing by a very surprised and anxious Diana. Her hand closed around the door knob, only to have another, larger hand close around hers. Usa looked up and found the kindly gaze of Kenji standing over her.

"You don't have to go, Usa," he said with a forgiving tone that for a fleeting moment hinted at the forgiving tone her mother had. "We obviously got off on the wrong foot. But you're family. There's a bond between us and that bond means we can work things out. There's no trouble so large that should be able to come between family. Not if you step back and look at things, and decide what's important and what's not as important. Once you realize that, you've got a bedrock that can support you. It means you don't have to run away from problems."

Usa winced. Despite her ambitions, she'd reverted to type once again at the first sign of trouble. She still wasn't strong enough to resist the urge to run away from her troubles. But her kindly grandfather had given her a second chance and she was determined to make the most of it.

"You're right, Kenji-Papa," Usa mumbled. "I'm not always that bright. I'm sorry if I caused any grief for anyone. I'll try better to show you how grateful I am that you're letting me stay here."

"You're family, Usa," Ikuko grinned. "To do anything else wouldn't be right."

Then Ikuko looked down at her daughter. She didn't say a word, but the expectant look of her expression was enough to let anyone know what she hoped Usagi would do. But she was going to let the child decide what to do herself.

"Cousin," Usagi squeaked. "I'm sorry if I was bad."

"You don't have anything to be sorry about," Usa replied. She knelt down and took the child in her arms. "You were looking out for your Mom and Dad. That's never, ever anything to be sorry about."

"You can sleep in my room tonight," Usagi offered contritely. "You can even sleep in my bed if you want to."

"Well that depends," Usa said, pulling back to face the child with a wicked grin on her face. "You don't drool in your sleep, do you?"

"NO!" barked Usagi. Then she grew embarrassed. "Well, not much. How do you know?"

"My Mom does the same thing," Usa smirked.

And in that moment, Usa and Usagi seemed to connect. And Usa saw in Usagi's eyes an impossible spark of recognition. The child seemed confused by the emotion, understandable for a child of four. Her brow furrowed and she stared at the teen.

"Do you sense me, Mom?" Usa thought, feeling tears welling. "I don't know how you could, but if anyone could, it'd probably be you. I won't let you down, Mom. I swear it. I swear it."

Continued in Chapter 5


	5. First Strike

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 5: "First Strike"

By Bill K.

Spring was in the air. The last coolness of winter had finally been eradicated. The air was filled with the scent of tree and flower blossoms trying to lure insects to them. There was a general vigor to the world, a vigor that had been suppressed by the cold of February.

Usa sat against a tree in the modest back yard of the Tsukino residence. Diana was curled up beside her thigh and together they were enjoying the spring. Usa was dressed in jeans with rolled up cuffs and a yellow and maroon horizontally striped short sleeve knit blouse. It fit close to the teen's torso, which seemed to get bigger and rounder every day. It was too close, in Diana's opinion, but the blouse had been a compromise. Usa had originally wanted to wear her pink and white body suit with astro-boots and collar, as replicated by Luna-P. It took twenty minutes for the cat to argue the Princess out of it, and only by pointing out that it was conspicuous fashion in the twentieth century and they WERE undercover.

"I'd forgotten how nice the springs were back in this time," Usa sighed. She absently stroked Diana's back.

"There's much to be said for it," the cat responded. "Sometimes I feel we lose as much from technological advance as we gain. The old alchemists had a term for it: equivalent exchange."

"What do you know about alchemy?" Usa wondered.

"Unlike Dad, I don't spend ALL my time sleeping," Diana replied. Usa grinned.

"Why would anyone want to destroy this?" Usa asked. "And why would anyone want to kill Mom?"

"Sociologists have wondered about the workings of the criminal mind for centuries," Diana mumbled, snuggling closer to Usa's thigh.

"You don't have any way to find out who does it, do you? I mean, does Viluy come back into the past herself or does she send an assassin? Because if she does, it could be anybody."

"Unfortunately, I don't possess Sailor Pluto's ability to see into the past. I was only able to bring us to this point in time because I willed the door of time to take us to a little bit before when the deed was done. It's a complex process involving the Time Keys. Fortunately Sailor Pluto demonstrated this to me once."

Usa fell silent. Diana resumed lightly sleeping.

"One act could change everything so drastically," Usa mumbled. "I know Mom was an important person, but even I didn't realize she was THIS important."

"Perhaps because you've spent a good portion of your life thinking of her as 'Mommy'," Diana replied. They she grew a wicked smile. "Or 'Baka Usagi'."

"Hey, I was right to think that! Mom was a screwball when she was a teenager!" Usa relented and smiled fondly. "Kind of fun, though, in her own way." The girl's smile dimmed. "I wish I knew what happened to Puu?" Usa posed. "She would have seen this coming and done something to stop it, wouldn't she?"

"Isn't that why we're here?" Diana asked.

"No, SHE would have done something. She would have prevented it. But it happened. And you saw the way she looked. It was like she'd been taken by surprise."

"Yes, I see where you're headed," nodded Diana, sitting up. "It certainly would be difficult to surprise someone who can see every moment of the past and all alternate futures."

Diana was about to go further, but a nudge from Usa caught her attention. She looked just in time to see little Usagi approaching.

"Were you talking to your cat?" Usagi asked, visibly perplexed.

"Sure," Usa smiled. "I talk to Diana all the time." The teen grew melancholy. "Sometimes she was the only one who'd listen."

"What about your Mommy and Daddy?" Usagi asked and both time travelers noticed the irony.

"Well, sometimes they'd listen," Usa shrugged, "and sometimes they were too busy being my Mommy and Daddy to listen." She peeked over at Usagi, who was dressed in a blue pinafore with a cream long-sleeve blouse. "You wouldn't do that to your child, would you?"

"Oh, no!" Usagi gasped, violently shaking her head. Usa grew a misty grin on her face.

"Good girl," the teen said. "So when do you start school?"

"In eleventy-six months," Usagi responded, proud that she knew a big number like 'eleventy-six'.

"You're not in pre-school now? I figure grand . . . Ikuko-Mama might want to start you in the pre-school cram schools."

Usagi's face fell. She looked down, embarrassed. "She did. But I couldn't pass the test."

Sympathy filled the pink-haired teen. She reached out and put her hand on the young girl's shoulder.

"Passing tests aren't everything in life," Usa told her. "Sometimes grown-ups get too wrapped up in tests and scores and they forget to worry about what kind of person the kid is. It's just as important to be nice to people. You're nice to people, aren't you?"

Usagi nodded enthusiastically.

"Like your friends, and your mom and dad?"

Usagi nodded again.

"And your brother Shingo?"

Usagi didn't nod that time. Usa gave her a questioning look.

"Well, he cries too much," huffed Usagi. "And he always wants his way. He's selfish."

"Yeah, but he's still your brother. And some day that's going to be important to you. I'm an only child. I can remember lots of times when I wished I had a brother or sister. You're lucky to have him, Usagi. Don't knock it."

Usagi nodded, then gave the teen a cherubic grin.

Suddenly seized by inspiration, the flighty young girl bounded off into the house. Usa watched her go.

"Hardly the type of child who'll grow into the 'terrible ogre parent' you sometimes make her out to be," commented Diana.

"Would you stop!" fussed Usa. "I never said she was an ogre."

"August 18, 2993," Diana countered.

"Gosh, what an amazing memory you have - - 'LUNA'."

"Call me that again and I'll sharpen my claws on every outfit in your closet," Diana replied with clenched teeth.

Just then Usa caught a fleeting glimpse of Usagi pushing open the front gate and heading north. Springing up, the teen flew into the kitchen.

"Ikuko-mama!" Usa gasped. "I just saw Usagi leave!"

"Don't worry," Ikuko smiled. "She's just going down to the park to play with her friends. My little Usagi gets bored very easily and loves playing." The woman sighed. "Someday she'll grow out of it."

"Yeah. Um, I'm going to go for a walk, OK?" Usa said, angling for the door.

"That's fine. Lunch is at twelve."

Like that, Usa was out the door and down the street in pursuit of Usagi. Diana was at her heels.

"Has something aroused your suspicions, My Lady?" Diana inquired.

"No," Usa replied, slowing so she didn't overtake the little four year old. "But think about it - - we don't know who's coming after her, or when or how. Can we risk leaving her alone, even if she's in a playground full of kids?"

"Sound thinking, My Lady. Prudence would suggest such a course."

"Prudence? Who's she?" Usa quipped and glanced down at the gray cat. Diana returned the glance with playful scorn.

The playground was just two blocks away. Usa and Diana kept their quarry in sight at all times, but kept enough distance from the child that she didn't notice she was being followed. At the mouth of the park, Usagi stopped at a cart selling ice cream.

"Hello, little girl," the salesman smiled. Usagi returned the smile with a blinding one of her own, complete with dimples. "Did you want an ice cream?"

"Yes, please!" beamed Usagi, her innate charm going full bore. The man reached into the cart and pulled out an ice cream on a stick.

"That'll be fifty yen," he said happily.

Usagi's face clouded over. "But I don't have any money," she whimpered.

The man's smile dimmed. He started to return the ice cream to the cooler. Then his eye caught Usagi's. She was staring up at him, disappointed but hopeful that a happy ending could still be achieved through the magic that existed to grant the wishes of little girls. Her golden blonde hair framed big blue eyes that seemed to possess a magic of their own. And suddenly the poor vendor couldn't conceive of possibly disappointing this delightful little cherub.

"Well," he hesitated, then brought the ice cream back out again, "then consider it a present." He handed it to the genuinely excited Usagi. "This time!"

"THANK YOU!" she beamed and skipped off with her sweet treasure. The vendor watched her leave and suddenly felt like he'd cured cancer.

"How shameless can you get?" Usa muttered, watching the tableau from a distance.

"I seem to recall a young girl with pink hair accomplishing much the same things in much the same way when she was that age," Diana replied.

"Yeah, but I was an amateur," Usa grumbled good-naturedly. "She's a pro."

In the scant minute it took for Usagi to find the three other girls her age she'd been searching for, the ice cream was gone. The other four year olds waved enthusiastically at the approaching blonde girl. Usagi instantly fell in with them and the four girls began playing as if they'd never been separated.

Diana heard Usa sigh.

"My Lady?" the cat asked.

"She does it so easily," Usa stated, her admiration tinged with a touch of envy, "even now. Everybody who meets her is automatically her friend. Everyone who knows her can't help but love her." She glanced down at the cat. "Don't worry, Diana. I've accepted it. Mom just has a gift. Obviously she's always had it."

"My Lady, you're much more popular than you think you are," the cat advised her.

"Yeah, but I have to work at it. It's always so effortless with her." The teen glanced around her. "Boy, I wish I'd brought my sketch pad. This is such a beautiful place."

The four girls went chasing off into the park. Usa and Diana moved to keep them in sight. When they neared the lake, Diana began to observe their surroundings more keenly.

"My Lady," Diana ventured, "do you realize where we are?"

"Um, I think it was called Juuban Park back in these days."

"Yes, but do you recognize the spot for what it will become?" Diana saw the blank look on Usa's face. "This is where the Queen's garden will be in the thirtieth century. And where the lake is now, that's where the palace will be."

Usa looked around. "I guess so. Never looked at it that way before."

"And right above that boat dock is the temporal nexus - - or rather where it shall be."

"Hey, that tree over there!" Usa exclaimed, pointing to a young tree to their west. "You don't suppose that's Gallan, do you?"

"Well," Diana stammered, "that's difficult to say."

"What are you doing here?" they heard Usagi demand. The pair turned and found Usagi and her three friends standing near them, looking up.

"Oh, hi Usagi," Usa said, inwardly reeling over the fact that the young Usagi she knew could possibly be stealthy. "I was, uh, just taking Diana for a walk. Yeah, she loves sniffing new places." For effect, Diana began sniffing the air. "Who are your friends?"

Innocently Usagi accepted the explanation. "This is Ruka-chan," Usagi said, gesturing to a robust youngster with dimples, large glasses and brown hair. "This is Yumiko-chan," and her hand moved to a pleasant young girl with thick black hair, the end held with a pink ribbon. "And this is Kuri-chan," and her hand moved to a thin girl with and short black hair. "Everyone, this is my cousin Usa. She's staying with us."

"How did you get your hair to look like that!" gasped Ruka.

"Oh, you're so pretty!" Yumiko exclaimed. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Thanks," blushed Usa. "Yeah, I do."

"Do you love him a lot?"

"I sure do," Usa smiled.

"Oh, what a pretty cat!" Kumi beamed. "Can I pet her?"

Usa nodded, then glanced at Usagi to see if the girl was jealous or disappointed in all the attention the older girl was getting. But to her surprise, Usagi seemed about to burst with pride that her relative could gain such quick acceptance. It made Usa feel small for even momentarily doubting the girl who would become her mother.

Yumiko questioned Usa incessantly about her boyfriend, while Ruka and Kumi fussed over Diana until the cat was rolling and purring in the grass. Usagi just silently lapped it up. The persistent questions of Yumiko momentarily distracted Usa. It wasn't until she heard her Luna-P pendant beep and felt the eyes light up that she realized that a man was approaching Usagi.

"What's he want? Is he the assassin?" Usa thought. Then a realization struck her. "I didn't disengage Luna-P's sensors! It's still reacting to androids!"

The strange man seemed ordinary. He was dressed in a light jacket and beige slacks. His dark hair and features were as unremarkable as anyone else in the park at the time. But he was clearly walking straight for Usagi at an even but determined pace. And Luna-P had him pegged as an artificial life form. In a moment Usa acted.

"Usagi, get down!" she screamed, lurching away from Usagi's playmates.

As she crossed the distance between them as fast as she could, time seemed to slow down for Usa. Usagi's expression of joy was morphing into surprise. The other three girls turned toward the motion of Usa's lunge, confused and anxious. The man - - the android - - recognized the belligerence of Usa's tone and her charge. He turned toward her, momentarily distracted from Usagi by Usa's action.

Usagi froze in place, confused by Usa's scream and by her charge. It was a trait Usa was all too familiar with. She tried to quell her irritation by reminding herself that Usagi was only four and four year olds didn't react too well in crises - - take her own history for example. If only it wasn't a trait that would follow her mother through her life - - but that was moot at the moment.

Her charge brought her between Usagi and the android. Usa hoped to tackle him. She further hoped that would spur Usagi to run so she could change into Sailor Moon and dispense with this assassin. Then out of nowhere the speed of the android came into play. A backhand blow came so fast that Usa didn't even see it before it struck her. The teen twisted in mid-air, propelled roughly to the ground, and impacted hard.

Dimly through her haze she heard a shriek and for a moment feared it was Usagi. When her head cleared, she saw Ritsuko, Kobu and Ruka fleeing the scene as fast as the terrified girls' legs could go. Turning, she saw Diana had leaped up into the android's face and, in what seemed to be the family fighting style, was raking at the mechanical monster's face with her claws. Where was Usagi though? Struggling to clear her head, Usa scanned with her eyes until she spotted Usagi. The girl was rooted to the same spot. Her hands were jammed to her mouth and her big blue eyes were wide with terror and staring. However, she wasn't staring in terror at the thing about to snuff out her young life. She was staring at Usa, terrified that her 'cousin' and friend had been seriously hurt.

"Usagi, get out of here!" Usa bellowed, clutching at her head to try to make things stop spinning. "Get out of here now!"

But Usagi wouldn't move, wouldn't abandon the teen until she knew Usa would be all right. She wouldn't do it.

"Damn it, Mom!" Usa murmured angrily under her breath. "I didn't want to have to do this!" Forcing back her dizziness, Usa jammed her hand into the air, fingers splayed. "Moon Crystal Power Make Up!"

One would have thought it wasn't possible for Usagi's eyes to grow any bigger - - but they did.

From her knees, Sailor Moon ripped off her tiara.

"Moon Tiara Action!" Sailor Moon shouted.

The tiara converted into an energy disk and Sailor Moon flung it at the android, just as it was swatting Diana away. The energy disk flew straight and true. It impacted the android chest high and the park shook with a sudden explosion. Sailor Moon was knocked onto her back by the force of the explosion. Though still dazed, she forced herself back to a battle ready position.

The android was gone, apparently disintegrated from the force of Sailor Moon's energy disk. Usagi was face down on the ground, knocked down by the explosion. Letting herself fade back to Usa, the teen hurried over and picked the fallen girl up.

"Usagi, are you all right?" Usa asked pensively. Usagi was alive, but tears streamed rivers down her cheeks. Usa worried about the effect the shock of these events might have on her.

"Usa, I hurt my elbow!" Usagi reported with a very immature, but somewhat familiar wail, then began crying. There was a minor scrape on her right elbow.

Yeah, she was fine.

Usa held the girl close to console her. But a thought nagged at the teen. She's just revealed herself to her mother-to-be.

Had she just now managed to alter the future even worse than Viluy had?

Continued in Chapter 6


	6. A Home Life Interrupted

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 6: "A Home Life Interrupted"

By Bill K.

All through dinner, Usa's thoughts were preoccupied with the battle earlier that day with Viluy's android assassin. The triumph she felt at having successfully defended her mother's life was muted by other concerns she couldn't manage to dismiss. She was only momentarily distracted from her preoccupation by the antics of the two Tsukino children and the efforts of their parents to control them. Two year old Shingo was being fussy about what he ate and was engaged in a battle of wills with Ikuko over whether he would eat what she'd prepared him. By contrast, Usagi was in the process of inhaling her food, so much so that Kenji twice admonished her to slow down before she choked. It took a third, sharper and louder admonition from Ikuko to get the girl's attention. Grudgingly she slowed down, but by then most of her food was gone.

"I'll do the dishes," Ikuko announced after dinner was finished and she'd conceded to Shingo that he wouldn't have to eat his strained peas. "Kenji, . . ."

"Um, sorry dear," Kenji excused himself, "but I brought some layouts home with me and I just have to work on them. The magazine goes to press in two days."

Ikuko sighed wearily. "I see. Usagi, could you and your brother play in the living room?"

"But I wanted to go out again!" Usagi howled petulantly.

"No," Ikuko replied sternly. "You've had enough excitement for one day. Besides, it's going to be dark soon. Go play with Shingo."

"Ohhhh," the four year old huffed. Ikuko brought Shingo down from his high chair and Usagi grasped his hand. "Come on, Brat," she said and led him off, cautious not to walk too fast.

"And don't call your brother a brat," Ikuko warned. Then she turned to Usa. "I hate imposing on a guest, but could you help me with the dishes?"

"Hmm?" Usa shook herself. "Oh, sure Ikuko-mama. No problem."

Within minutes the two women were washing dishes. Usa went on auto-pilot, thinking again about her current dilemma.

"Usa, is something wrong?" Ikuko inquired.

"Hmm? Um, no."

"Forgive me if I'm intruding. It's just that you seemed distracted all through dinner. Usagi wasn't any trouble for you this afternoon, was she?"

"No. She was fine," Usa answered.

"If there's anything troubling you, feel free to talk it over with me," Ikuko offered. "I'll do what I can to help."

"You wouldn't understand," Usa sighed. Ikuko gave her a wry smile.

"Oh, I can remember how many times I told MY mother that when I was your age," the woman related. "It's amazing now how many of the problems I had at sixteen that seemed so crucial then seem so trivial now. I would have known that then if I'd just talked it out with someone. But Reika was only twelve and couldn't grasp the things I was going through. And I didn't think my parents would understand. Maybe they wouldn't have, but I never gave them the chance."

Usa thought about her own parents. She wondered momentarily if she'd ever not given them the chance.

"Did you ever find anyone you could confide in?" Usa asked.

Ikuko sighed happily. "Yes. A dorky little boy with glasses, no coordination and no fashion sense. I only talked to him in the first place because he was president of the photography club and he was taking pictures of everyone in the junior class for a photo montage for summer festival. But he had a wonderful sense of humor and he listened to everything I told him. I didn't want to open up to him at first, but he asked me so earnestly that I felt I could trust him. And the more he listened, the more comfortable I felt telling him things. I just felt I could unburden myself with him and he wouldn't judge me." Ikuko glanced over at her tenderly. "It's a wonderful thing to have - - someone you can confide in."

"I know. My friend Hotaru's like that. Boy I miss her." Usa glanced over at Ikuko. "Do you still talk to him?"

"All the time," Ikuko grinned. "He's in the den, working on his layouts for the magazine."

"Kenji-papa?" Usa gasped. "Is that how you two met?"

Ikuko nodded. "Before I posed for him, I wouldn't have given him the time of day. Now I don't know what I'd do without him. Fate is a mysterious thing, Usa."

"Wow," Usa sighed.

"The years we were dating were some of the happiest years of my life," Ikuko told her, "and some of the hardest."

"Why?"

"I was in love with Kenji just months after we started dating - - maybe only weeks. I wanted so badly to marry him. But we were only seventeen and Kenji was determined to wait until he could support a wife." The woman sighed. "He was right, of course - - but waiting to marry the man you love, when you know who he is, is one of the hardest, longest waits you can ever endure."

"You got that right," Usa whispered to herself, thinking of Helios. Out loud she asked, "Has being married been all you thought it would be?"

"Well," Ikuko smiled self-consciously, "being a couple means having to adjust and compromise sometimes. Kenji's not the perfect man, and I know I'm far from perfect. But the good things we do for each other far outweigh the annoyances of living with someone else. And those eight months we had together until I got pregnant with Usagi were the closest thing I've ever known to heaven."

They silently washed dishes for a little bit.

"Are you sorry you had kids?" Usa asked suddenly.

"Goodness, no," Ikuko smiled. "When I first became pregnant with Usagi, I admit I wondered if this was the end of my utopian life. But though children may take your old life from you, they open up an entire new life that you hadn't guessed even existed, if only you're open to seeing it. Shingo is such a beautiful little boy. And Usagi - - there's something about her. Something I can't describe. Maybe I'm just being a proud parent, but I think I see greatness in her - - if I can just get her father to stop spoiling her. No, Usa, being a parent has been a unique and wonderful experience for me."

"MOM!" they heard Usagi bellow from the other room. "Shingo spit up all over my favorite picture book!"

Ikuko's expression fell into fatigued disappointment. "But I am going to stop at two," she told Usa with depressed finality.

That evening in Usagi's room, Usa lay on her mat with her hands tucked behind her head. She was staring up at the ceiling when Diana found her.

"I thought you'd be planning to head back to Crystal Tokyo, My Lady," Diana ventured. "The battle's won. The crisis averted. Don't you want to go back and sing for Hotaru's birthday?"

"Did we win?" Usa asked.

"You defeated the assassin, and quite bravely, too," Diana told her. "Your mother is safe."

"Then why hasn't Puu come back to get us? She wouldn't want me meddling in the past any more than I should. What if she's still gone?"

"My Lady, that can't be. You prevented your mother's assassination. Everything should be put right now."

"Who's to say that Viluy woman didn't just come back again and kill Mom when she was five or six or ten? Or what if she sends another android back here the moment I leave? It's her past. She'll know when I leave. Or," and Usa grimaced with anxiety.

"Or what?" Diana prodded.

"Or what if I changed things when I revealed myself in front of Mom? What if I messed things up just as badly as Viluy did?"

Diana was about to speak when the door to the room opened. When they saw Usagi walk in, Diana held her tongue. Usa rolled over onto her stomach. Usagi seemed normal, but there was a look in her eye that bothered Usa.

"Why are you lying here in the dark?" Usagi asked.

"Just thinking," Usa replied. "Done tormenting your brother?"

"He was tor . . . whatever that is . . . he was doing it to me. He's a brat."

"Just wait," Usa smirked to herself.

"How did you change your clothes like that?"

Usa gulped. She knew what the child meant, but tried to play it cool.

"These are the same clothes I had on at dinner," Usa said.

"No, in the park," Usagi maintained. "You changed into a pretty pink and white sailor suit with pretty red ribbons. How did you do that? And how did you make that man disappear with that ball of light?"

Diana and Usa exchanged nervous glances. The teen's mind raced. She didn't want to keep lying to the little girl, but she couldn't tell her the truth. It might further damage a time-line already in chaotic disrepair. But Usagi kept staring, expecting an explanation.

"Um," Usa stammered. Then her shoulders slumped. "I didn't want to tell you this. Usagi. I'm - - I'm not really your cousin."

"You lied to Mommy and Daddy!" the girl gasped.

"I had to! They weren't supposed to know who I really am! Nobody's supposed to know. It's a secret I'm not supposed to tell anybody. You weren't even supposed to find out, but you did."

"What secret?" Usagi asked, her blue eyes wide and wondrous.

Diana watched Usa expectantly, praying she wasn't going to confess the truth, but unable to think how else she could get around it.

"Usagi, I'm," Usa began, then swallowed, "a fairy."

The pink-haired teen ignored the sound of Diana's face vault.

"REALLY!" Usagi gasped, her blue eyes twinkling with delight.

"Yeah. And those clothes you saw me change into was my fairy costume."

"WOW! A REAL LIVE FAIRY! WAIT UNTIL I TELL . . .!" Usagi began to exclaim. Usa firmly grasped the child by her shoulders, pulling the girl from her euphoria.

"Usagi!" Usa hissed. "You can't tell anyone about this! Please!"

"Not even Mommy and Daddy?" Usagi asked. The poor child seemed stricken and Usa felt a pain in her heart equal to a knife thrust.

"Nobody, Usagi. If word gets out that I'm a fairy, I - - um, the Fairy Queen will call me back! And if that happens, I won't be able to find the bad men who are here and protect everyone!" She could see Usagi was having trouble comprehending. "That man in the park - -  
he was one of the bad men. And that light was - - was my fairy magic. It sent him back to the Fairy Queen so she could - - um, change him into a good guy."

"Really?"

"But if you tell people about me, the bad men will know where I am and I'll have to go back to my world."

"You'd have to leave?" Usagi asked, aghast. Usa nodded. "I won't tell then. I don't want you to leave."

"I thought you didn't trust me," Usa smirked.

"Well," and Usagi bowed her head, twisting her fingers in remorse, "that was before." Suddenly she brightened up. "Can you do some magic for me?"

Usa thought a moment. "OK. But get into your bedclothes first."

Eagerly Usagi complied. The four year old raced back in footed pajamas that were pink and had a cotton tail just like a bunny. She stood expectantly before Usa as the teen got to her feet.

"OK, now you're here, right?" Usa asked. Usagi nodded. "Alakazam!" she shouted and whisked the girl up into the air, then gently brought her down on her bed. "And now you're in bed."

"That wasn't magic!" Usagi howled as Usa pulled up the covers.

"I guess you caught me. I just can't get anything past you," Usa smirked. Usagi gave her a petulant pout that reminded her of a thousand other times in her past yet to come. "I'm just teasing you, Usagi."

She bent in and kissed the girl on the forehead, then turned for the door. Usa was just about to reach for the knob.

"Usa?" she heard Usagi squeak. The teen turned to the young girl. "I promise I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks, Usagi," Usa smiled, feeling herself mist up. She and Diana exited the room and wandered out into the safe isolation of the back yard.

"Ah, the unwavering love between a mother and a daughter," Diana smirked. Usa flushed slightly as they sat on the back step. "But My Lady - - a fairy?"

"Well what was I supposed to tell her - - the truth?" Usa retorted. "She probably believes this more easily than if I had told her I'm a time traveler from the future. Anyway, we've got more important things to think about. What do we do about Viluy?"

"Perhaps you have put things to right and Viluy is no longer a threat," Diana proposed, "in this instance."

"You think?" Usa asked, wanting to believe it.

"There's only one sure way to find out."

"Yeah, but remember her androids were studying the temporal nexus when we left. If we go back, we might just walk into a trap she's set for us, too."

"Yes, that is a possibility," Diana murmured.

"We've got to find Puu," Usa declared. "She's the only one who can put this back together for sure. I'm just stumbling around blind." The teen emitted a frustrated sigh. "But where do we look? Where could she be? And what happened to her?"

"Valid questions I've asked myself," the gray cat replied.

"And how did Viluy even catch her? Wouldn't she know Viluy was coming before even Viluy knew it?"

"Quite right. There are two possibilities. Perhaps Sailor Pluto foresaw her capture as necessary to a desirable outcome and allowed herself to be captured."

"And she's depending on me to make the right choice?" Usa whispered. Diana could see the anxiety welling up in the princess once again, an anxiety born from the fateful day she'd made the wrong choice and brought violence and misery down upon the heads of the kingdom and her family.

"My Lady," Diana ventured quickly. "There is another possibility. In the limbo that houses the Door of Time, one is - - removed from the effects of the passage of time in our world. That fact is what kept us from being revised out of existence when Viluy changed history. Perhaps Sailor Pluto's vision into the past and futures is effected by this phenomenon as well. I can only guess that perhaps Viluy somehow gained access to that limbo and surprised Sailor Pluto in the one place where her ability to view time past and future would be useless."

"Then Puu could still be alive?" Usa asked.

"Perhaps," Diana responded. "If the self that was captured was kept out of Earth's time-line, it theoretically could still exist. Perhaps she might even still exist as an anomaly in Viluy's horrific future. If only we had some way to trace her."

The pair sat on the back step and pondered while a crescent moon watched over them.

"Maybe we should just go back into time and keep Viluy from happening," Usa muttered. "That would solve everything."

"No, My Lady," Diana said, "that would only be exchanging one set of problems for another. We've no way of knowing how Viluy's absence might affect events such as the battle against The Silence, or what other things might be changed."

"Then what do we do?" Usa asked.

Diana couldn't answer.

Eventually the brooding teen felt a soft hand on her shoulder. She looked up and found Kenji kneeling behind her.

"My, you're in a bleak mood," he said. His tone was caring and non-judgmental. It was nothing like her father's. "Missing your friends?"

A breath shuddered out of Usa's chest. "Boy, am I," she said.

"Well, this won't last forever. Pretty soon you'll be back with them and you can tell them all about your adventure."

Usa felt her heart twinge.

"It's getting late," Kenji gently suggested. "Maybe a good night's sleep will help pick up your spirits."

"Maybe, Kenji-papa," Usa forced a smile. She rose and followed her grandfather into the house.

On her way to the mat she slept on in Usagi's room, Usa passed another bedroom. Ikuko was inside putting Shingo down in his crib.

"All ready for bed?" Ikuko asked tenderly. Shingo squirmed, then nodded drowsily. She pointed to the window at the crescent moon visible through it. "Then say 'goodnight, moon'."

"G'night, moom," Shingo repeated, for he was still learning to talk. Ikuko bent down and kissed his forehead as he snuggled in the crib. Diana looked up at Usa and saw the princess drinking in this tender family scene. Was she recalling distant memories of her own past and a similar bedtime act of the queen?

* * *

A noise crossed Diana's ears and suddenly she was awake and alert. The cat perked her head up and looked around. Her internal clock told her it was sometime in the vicinity of three in the morning. Though nothing immediately presented itself to account for the noise, Diana's feline instincts were screaming that danger was imminent.

Then she spotted a shadowy shape in the tree outside Usagi's window.

"My Lady!" hissed Diana. She nudged the sleeping princess.

"Mmm, just another five minutes, Pop," Usa mumbled, half-awake.

"My Lady, get up! There's an intruder!"

Silently the shadow hopped to the windowsill. Applying pressure to the bottom of the window snapped the latch. As the window eased silently up, Usa finally realized what was happening.

And if things weren't menacing enough, Usa's Luna-P pendant's eyes began to flash.

Continued in Chapter 7


	7. A Change Of Venue

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 7: "A Change of Venue"

By Bill K.

Silently the shadow hopped to the windowsill. Applying pressure to the bottom of the window snapped the latch. As the window eased silently up, Usa finally realized what was happening.

And if things weren't menacing enough, Usa's Luna-P pendant's eyes began to flash.

Instantly Usa crawled over to Usagi's bed and nudged the sleeping four year old.

"Usagi," she hissed, seeing that the android had tracked her movements. "Get up!"

"Mmm, just five more minutes, Mama," the drowsy child groaned.

"Usagi, get up!" Usa barked urgently. She pulled the child from her bed as the android climbed in through the window. This dragged Usagi from her slumber and the girl looked first to Usa and then to the shadowy figure climbing in the window with confusion and mounting alarm.

"Moon Crystal Power Make Up!" Usa said and in an instant transformed into Sailor Moon. "Usagi, go to your brother's room and wait for me!"

"But . . .?" Usagi sputtered.

"It's one of the bad men! I have to deal with him! Go!"

Spurred on by the urgency in Sailor Moon's voice, Usagi ran for the door. Silently Sailor Moon nodded Diana to follow the tot. As the android moved to pursue, Sailor Moon intercepted him and the pair faced each other down. Usagi's last glimpse of Sailor Moon was of her standing in the dark, menacing figure's path like a gleaming beacon of light.

"Moon Tiara Action!" Sailor Moon called out, softly so as not to awaken the other members of the Tsukino household. She let fly with the energy disk and it flew straight and true towards the artificial human.

But to her shock, the android evaded the disk. It calculated the speed and trajectory of the missile, ducking beneath it at the last possible moment. Before the senshi could react, the android was upon her. Hands clamped around her soft throat, trying to crush Sailor Moon's windpipe. The android possessed unusual strength to go with its speed. Her hands came up, trying to push the android's arms away, but to no avail.

Then the intense training Makoto and Minako gave her came into play. Automatically Sailor Moon thrust up with both palms against the elbows of her assailant as hard as she could. The impact stung her hands through her gloves, but she produced enough force to hyper-extend the elbows and drive the android's hands from her throat. Ignoring the pain in her chest and neck, Sailor Moon lashed out with a vicious kick to the android's chest, intent upon shoving him back.

Instead, the android stood its ground. The impact with the immovable object sent a shockwave back through Sailor Moon's leg and threw her off balance. Due to this, she was unable to defend herself against a whip-like backhand blow from the android. Sailor Moon crashed to the floor in a heap near Usagi's bed.

"Come on," she groaned to herself as the senshi struggled to rise. "Get up! Mom needs you!"

In Shingo's room next door, Diana and Usagi anxiously waited. Each noise that emanated from Usagi's room made the pair more and more nervous. Diana could tell Usagi was quite upset and was visibly trembling. Furthermore, she could hear Shingo stirring in his crib. She wanted desperately to go to Sailor Moon and offer any assistance she could. But the gray cat knew her duty and held her ground.

Footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. Usagi reflexively backed away from the door, her hands to her mouth and her eyes wide. Diana could tell by the sound of the steps that it wasn't Sailor Moon approaching. She took a position between Usagi and the door, ready to defend the little blonde girl with her life. Shingo sat up in his crib.

"'nee-chan!" he said, recognizing his sister. The toddler reached through the slats of the crib for her.

Just then, the door opened and the android, swathed in shadows and unearthly in appearance, stepped in. Diana crouched, arched her back and hissed at it as menacingly as she could muster. Terrified by Diana's sudden belligerence, Shingo pulled back and began wailing in fear. The android ignored them both and began advancing on Usagi.

But behind him, bracing herself against the frame of the door, was Sailor Moon. Her moment's glimpse of the senshi told Diana that Sailor Moon had the Luna-P pendant in her hand.

"Luna-P transform!" Sailor Moon choked out with a raspy voice. "Become a - - a magnetic pulse disruption generator!"

The pendant complied and transformed into the two foot by two foot electronic engine at Sailor Moon's feet. The senshi's fist slammed down on the ignition trigger. Instantly all the metallic objects in the room turned toward Sailor Moon and the generator's growing magnetic field. The android stopped its advance toward Usagi and turned to the generator.

The generator pulsed once. It was an action felt by everyone more than seen or heard. The android stiffened like it had been shot, then fell over inert.

Usagi stared down at the fallen android, unable to comprehend what had happened and unwilling to believe that the threat was now over. Shingo continued to wail in terror, more from the sight of Diana than from the android. Shutting both out of her mind, Sailor Moon pulled her tiara from her forehead again.

"Moon Tiara Action," she said softly, invoking the tiara's energy disk phase. In seconds the android disintegrated in the face of the energy disk. Sailor Moon then reverted to Usa, and none too soon. When she turned around, Kenji and Ikuko were peering into the room from the open door, confused and anxious.

"What's going on in here?" Kenji demanded.

"Um," Usa stammered, panting deeply.

"A man came through my window!" sobbed Usagi. Instantly Kenji was across the room and comforting his daughter. Usagi leaned against the safe, solid form of her father and let the tears flow.

"Usa?" Ikuko queried the teen as she picked up Shingo and tried to mollify the toddler.

"Um, yeah," Usa nodded. "This guy climbed in through Usagi's bedroom window - - from the tree outside. I-I think he was a burglar or something. I had Usagi go to Shingo's room while I - - kept him busy."

"A burglar?" Ikuko gasped. Shingo's crying had finally calmed to whimpers.

"Is that what happened, Princess?" Kenji asked Usagi. The man clearly seemed threatened by the entire situation. Usagi nodded tearfully.

"I guess all the commotion scared him off," Usa added before Usagi could say where the burglar went.

Kenji got up, Usagi in his arms, and crossed over to Usa.

"Thank you," he said gratefully. "That was a tremendously brave thing you did for my family."

Usa felt her heart swelling. "You do what you have to do," she shrugged modestly.

"Thank you," Usagi squeaked, "Usa-oneechan."

The pink-haired teen suppressed a giddy shudder. "Anything for you, Usagi-chan."

"Meow?" Diana inquired, rubbing against Ikuko's leg. When she looked down, Shingo imitated her. But once he saw Diana, the boy began crying hysterically again.

"Oh, dear," Ikuko said, protectively pressing the boy's head to her shoulder. "Shingo seems to be frightened of your cat now."

Usa quickly scooped Diana up and held her away from Shingo.

"You don't suppose he associates everything that happened with the cat now, do you," Kenji reasoned.

"I hope not," Ikuko grimaced. She turned timidly to Usa. "Maybe you'd better take your cat into the other room. I'm sorry."

"It's OK," Usa whispered. The teen exited while two parents tried to calm their children.

She retired to Usagi's bedroom and squatted on the mat on the floor. For a few moments all the girl did was stroke Diana's side.

"My Lady?" Diana whispered.

"She called me 'Usa-oneechan'," Usa murmured, grinning. "That's a long way from 'brat'."

"I'm dreadfully sorry, My Lady. I didn't mean to frighten poor Shingo. The android startled me and I hissed at it. It was a reflex."

"I don't blame you, Diana," Usa told her softly.

"I hope he's not going to be frightened of cats from now on," Diana lamented. "We're really quite a gentle species if you give us cause."

"Diana, what are we going to do? We can't just sit here and fight off android attacks for the rest of Mom's life. Those things are beginning to adapt to our attacks. And what if Viluy sends a whole platoon of them? We can't fight them all off!" The teen stiffened. "Or what if she sends one that looks like Kenji-papa or Ikuko-mama?"

"Fortunately you have the pendant to . . ." Diana began, then stopped when she looked up. "My Lady, something seems wrong with Luna-P."

Quickly Usa whipped the pendant off. The pair stared intently at the small black cat's head.

"She looks dead," Usa cried.

"You may have burned the device's circuitry out. Luna-P was created as a child's toy and guardian device. It's possible that the pulse from the magnetic pulse disruption generator magnetically fused its circuitry as it did the android's."

"Ohh," Usa groaned, tearing up. She pressed the inert pendant to her face. "I'm sorry, Luna-P."

"M-My Lady," Diana grimaced.

"She's gone," Usa whispered. "Luna-P was my first friend." A tear trickled down her cheek. "And now we don't have any way to track those androids."

A grim silence surrounded the two fugitives from the future.

"We've got to find Puu," Usa concluded. "There's no other way out of this."

"But where shall we start looking?" Diana asked.

Usa pondered this question.

"The Door of Time," Usa announced. "It leads to every moment that's ever been and ever will be. There has to be a path in there that leads to where Puu is."

"But My Lady," Diana cautioned, "if Sailor Pluto was overcome in the confines of the temporal limbo, there's no possible way the Door of Time could lead to that point. The temporal limbo is outside of the flow of time."

"There's no body in the limbo, right?" Usa countered. "That means Viluy took her somewhere. And that somewhere has to be outside the limbo. I'm going to find out where. If it takes me a thousand years, I'm going to find it." She started to get up.

"Very well," Diana conceded. "But finish resting first."

"Diana, we can't wait."

"Yes we can. How many times must I tell you the Door of Time can transport you to a specific point in time no matter when you leave? You can afford to take a few hours and finish your rest." Usa looked at her skeptically. "Believe me, My Lady. I have dealt with things like this for a few years."

Frustrated, Usa flopped on her back and blew at her bangs. "I don't know how you expect me to sleep now," she grumbled.

"That's one more lesson humans would do well to learn from cats," Diana replied smugly, then curled up next to her.

* * *

"This is kind of sudden," Kenji said, looking across the breakfast table at his pink-tressed guest.

"Yeah, well, I called Mom and," Usa said, trying to keep her story straight in her head and dreading that she was failing miserably, "she said that it was OK if I came home now."

She tried to keep eye contact with Kenji and Ikuko to remain convincing. Lying always seemed to be so difficult for her. She remembered Hotaru once said it was because she was too honest to be a good liar. The only one she ever seemed to convince was her mother - - and her mother would believe anything.

"Usa, this doesn't have anything to do with last night, does it?" Ikuko asked. Usa could see the woman wasn't buying her story for a minute. And now she didn't have Luna-P to hypnotize them into believing it.

"No," she replied in a manner that even she didn't believe. "I just - - Mom got her business wrapped up quicker than she expected. And I miss my friends. And I've imposed on your household enough."

"Usa, you are not an imposition," Kenji told her charitably, "and you never have been. You are welcome to stay here as long as you like. If you feel you need to leave, though, we wish you good luck and a safe trip." Kenji smiled warmly at her, a smile that in a small way was vaguely reminiscent of the megawatt smile her mother could generate. "Please feel free to visit us again at any time."

"Thanks," Usa swallowed, emotion making her voice hoarse. "I may take you up on that some day."

Then they all noticed Usagi. She was sitting silently at the table, but her big blue eyes were shouting her distress to anyone who might notice.

"Usagi," Ikuko brushed her hand along the girl's blonde hair, "you knew she was only visiting."

"But why does she have to go?" the girl whimpered and the dam broke on her tears. She turned urgently to Usa. "I'm sorry if I offended you, Usa-oneechan!"

"Usagi, you didn't do anything to offend me," Usa smiled. "I just gotta go."

"Why?" the tot pleaded.

"Usagi," her mother replied sternly.

"It's OK," Usa told her. Turning back to Usagi, she reached out and brushed the tears away. "I love being here, Usagi. You've got a great home and a great family." The teen swallowed. "But - - I've got a great home and a great family, too. And I miss them and I want to go back to them. You understand that, don't you?"

The child nodded reluctantly. Usa stroked the girl's cheek with her finger.

Usa helped Ikuko with the dishes while Kenji hurried off to work. Once she was finished, the girl collected Diana and headed for the door. Ikuko and Usagi were waiting for them.

"I left Shingo in his playpen," Ikuko explained. "I was afraid of your cat upsetting him again."

Usa nodded.

"I really enjoyed you staying here," Ikuko continued. "You're a very bright young woman with a very bright future ahead of her. Maybe you should stop worrying about things you've done in the past and enjoy that future."

Usa gaped at her for a second, amazed at the woman's perceptiveness. A timid smile crossed her face.

"Yes, Ikuko-mama," Usa replied. "I really did mean it when I said I enjoyed staying here. It's kind of hard to believe you and my Mom are from the same family. You're completely opposite."

"I don't know whether that's a compliment to me or to Reika," Ikuko smirked. "So I'll just leave it at that."

Sensing she should, Usa knelt down to Usagi. The child was disappointed, but struggled to put up a brave front.

"Good-bye, Usa-oneechan," Usagi murmured.

"Don't be so final, Usagi-chan," Usa smiled. "I promise you, we'll meet again."

Hope seemed to blossom in the young girl's eyes and it made Usa feel ten feet tall. She held Diana out to the girl.

"Say 'good-bye' to Diana," Usa requested.

"Good-bye, Diana!" Usagi beamed, stroking the gray cat's head. "Maybe I'll get to have a pretty kitty like you someday, too!"

"Meow!" Diana replied in her best feline-ese.

Once out of the gate and away from the Tsukino residence, Usa set Diana down and the pair headed for Juuban Park. As they walked, though, Diana could sense the Princess entering another one of her melancholy moods.

"I dare say you made quite the favorable impression on the young queen," Diana ventured, then added slyly, "for a fairy, that is."

"She won't remember," Usa whispered.

"My Lady," Diana sighed. "Must you see the dark side of everything?"

"I show up on their doorstep when she's fourteen, remember?" Usa told her. "She didn't recognize me."

"Well," Diana stammered, "the Queen is noted for being absent-minded. And you did look somewhat different at age four than you do now."

"It's OK. I wouldn't expect her to remember. She's only four now. The older you get, the less you remember from your early years. That's the way humans are wired." The Princess gained a rueful look. "Unless you've got four crazy sisters chasing you, trying to kill you. That's kind of hard to forget. But I know it's nothing personal against me. She can't help but forget about all of this."

The girl uttered an almost undetectable sigh.

"Though it would be nice . . ."

"When we reach the temporal limbo, My Lady," Diana asked, trying to shift her companion's mood away from the depressing, "where do you suggest we start looking?"

"Well, isn't there some way to search time for a specific event? I mean, how else does Puu know where to go when she travels in time?"

"With Sailor Pluto, I believe she uses her own innate ability to see the past and future," Diana related. Her brow furrowed. "But when you or I use a Time Key, the key itself interfaces with the traveler's brain in order to access the desired moment in time."

"Then if I tell it to take me to the moment Puu exists in actual time - - after January 6, 2997, it'll take me there?" Usa asked.

"I suppose it would work that way," Diana admitted. "IF she's in actual time."

"Works for me!" Usa exclaimed and broke into a run toward the park and the lake near the north end. Diana quickly broke into a run after her.

Continued in Chapter 8


	8. A Future Rebuilt

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 8: "A Future Rebuilt"

By Bill K.

The temporal limbo that housed the Door of Time seemed as sepulchral as ever to Usa when she and Diana entered. If anything, it seemed even more silent and alone without the presence of Sailor Pluto, a presence the young princess had come to expect every time she entered. Diana seemed more accustomed to the place, for she had spent three years substituting for Sailor Pluto during the senshi's temporary "death".

"Puu?" the pink-haired teen called out, just to make sure that saving her mother from assassination hadn't already put everything to right.

There was no answer.

"OK, how do we get this to work, Diana?" Usa asked urgently. "Do I just tell it to take me to Puu?"

"It's a shade more complex than that, My Lady," the gray cat replied.

She gestured for the key and Usa handed it to her. Holding the key in both paws, Diana closed her eyes and concentrated. For a moment she seemed to be communicating with the key. Then, amazingly, the key levitated up from her paws and floated into the lock of the Door of Time. The key turned in the lock, glowing bright ruby all the while, and the door creaked open.

"This way, My Lady," Diana strode confidently toward the open door as the Time Key floated out of the lock and hovered overhead like a beacon. "The key shall lead us down the proper path."

"Where is she?" Usa asked.

"Let's find out," the cat smiled.

The pair walked through the swirling mists of the time corridor, the key leading them the entire time. As always there was some trepidation in the heart of the young princess, for the time corridor was still an ominous place. The warning she received from Sailor Pluto many years ago about the dangers of becoming lost in time should she stray in the corridor came back as she walked. Rather than daunt her, though, it strengthened her resolve to see this through and find the missing Sailor Pluto and restore her history to what it was.

Then the mists dissipated and the pair of time travelers found themselves in familiar circumstances.

"This looks like the palace!" Usa gasped, amazed at what she saw once more. "Puu isn't being held here, is she? That's impossible!"

"My Lady," Diana cautioned, "the corridor only takes one through time, not space. That's an entirely different dimension. We've arrived at the 'when' that Sailor Pluto exists in. We've yet to determine the 'where'."

"Rats," scowled the Princess. "There's always a catch."

"Buck up, My Lady. At least you've managed to restore - - at least most of the present we've come to know."

"And if that's the case," Usa continued the thought, pushing on the send button of her senshi communicator, "then I can call up some reinforcements."

"Yes, Princess," Jun-Jun's voice came through the communicator as her holographic image projected from it. "Is there trouble?" Surrounding her were holograms of her other senshi.

"Afraid so," Usa replied. "Everybody meet me out by the garden. I'll fill you in there." She turned to the hologram of Hotaru as the others disconnected. "Sorry to ruin your birthday, Hotaru."

"It can't be helped, Usa," Hotaro replied, then logged off.

Diana was about to scamper off, then noticed the princess lingering. She looked up inquiringly and found the teen with an immense look of relief on her face. After a moment, Usa noticed Diana's gaze.

"In Viluy's future, Hotaru was dead," Usa replied misty-eyed.

"It is truly amazing the difference one person can make, isn't it My Lady?"

A stiff January wind whipped through the royal garden of The Crystal Palace. Turning her back to the gust, Cere-Cere shivered.

"Why did the Princess have to pick THIS spot?" the girl whined.

"Nobody said you had to go outside in just your blouse and slacks," chided Jun-Jun.

"JACKETS AREN'T FASHIONABLE THIS YEAR!" Cere-Cere retorted.

"Neither is freezing," Hotaru replied. She slipped out of her own jacket. "You can wear mine if you like."

"What about you?" Cere-Cere asked.

"If I concentrate, the cold won't affect me much," Hotaru shrugged. Everybody wondered, but nobody asked why.

"Well, thanks," Cere-Cere said. She took the jacket, but looked it over with less than enthusiasm. "But I don't think ultra-petite is going to fit me. You might as well keep it. But thanks."

"Wow, that is small," marveled Ves-Ves. "Where do you buy your clothes, the children's section?"

Hotaru flushed and looked down. "Yes."

Further discussion was silenced when the five heard someone running up. They turned just in time to witness Usa bend at the waist and wrap Palla-Palla in a huge bear hug.

"Palla-Palla, you're alive!" the teen squealed.

"Yes she is, Princess," Palla-Palla squeaked, clearly as perplexed as the group. "Shouldn't she be?"

"Yes, you should," Usa replied resolutely, to everyone's amazement. "And you are. And I'm going to keep it that way!"

"Somebody wants to hurt Palla-Palla?" Ves-Ves demanded, her ire already beginning to smoulder just beneath the surface.

"More than just Palla-Palla," Diana spoke up. "All of reality."

"Maybe you better fill us in, Princess," Jun-Jun ventured.

"Um, yeah," Cere-Cere added, her arms crossed tightly across her chest, "but could we do it someplace WARM"

* * *

As the six teens moved off to a restaurant near the palace to plan their attack, observation drones monitored their every move, as they did the entire city. They were the drones of King Endymion and they reported back everything that the city did or knew, in the palace or out in the streets. They were Endymion's eyes and ears, sources of information that he needed to fulfill his never-ending quest to protect his city, his people and his family from any and all who might do harm to them. The king knew the value of information and set up this sophisticated network of observation drones to give him that information so he might use it to benefit all.

While the scene replayed on a remote monitor hooked into the video and audio relay narrow-cast, a hand absently fingered a crystal stud on the control panel beneath. Recorders were suddenly engaged, in case the video and audio to come might prove useful enough to be referred back to. All the while, the observer listened intently to every word that came from each of the teens and the cat.

For Viluy knew the value of information just as much as Endymion did. That's why she'd hacked into his observation network a long time ago.

"I don't know how," Viluy mumbled to herself as she studied every teen's gesture and listened to every word, "but Princess Usagi has managed to prevent everything I've done in the past." Viluy searched her memories, all the while multi-tasking on observing the teens and their plans. "It's strange. I captured Sailor Pluto in the time-space phenomenon and brought her here, then dispatched an android assassin to the past to kill Queen Serenity. And yet, nothing's different. And from what the princess has already said, she was aware of my plans somehow and altered them - - which shouldn't have been possible."

Viluy glanced over to a crystalline tube on the other side of the small monitor room. Inside the crystalline tube was the figure of a woman.

"Apparently this situation requires further study," Viluy said to the woman in the tube. "Somehow the princess thwarted my plans. I'll need to learn just what she's done and what she plans to do in order to effectively countermand her actions and set my plan back into motion. Don't you agree?"

Sailor Pluto, staring rigidly ahead in cryogenic suspended animation, did not reply.

* * *

"Usa, that's terrible!" Hotaru gasped after she and the Asteroids listened to the entire story of the alternate future Viluy's actions had conjured up.

"You don't know the half of it," Usa grunted, and everyone could see she was even now haunted by visions of that future. "You guys only listened to it. I lived it."

"But you changed it back, didn't you?" Cere-Cere asked. "I mean, we're all here and everything's the way it's supposed to be, right?"

"As far as I know," Usa shrugged. "Except Puu - - Pluto's still gone."

"And Viluy is still at large," Diana added. "And there's no assurance that she won't make another attempt until she's been neutralized."

"Then let's go find her," Ves-Ves glared.

"Wait a minute," Jun-Jun interceded.

"Wait nothing!" snapped Ves-Ves. "Wait until she makes another play for the Queen? Wait until she snapped Palla-Palla's neck for real this time? No, we track her down and we do whatever needs to be done to make sure she can't do anything like this again!"

"I'm not saying we shouldn't," Jun-Jun argued. "I'm saying we need to tell the King and Queen and the Elder Senshi first. This Viluy is a dangerous character. She's all over the history files."

"Are you saying we can't take her?"

"I'm saying that having the elders in on this too makes it that much more likely she can be found and stopped. That's what's most important, Ves."

"Cold," Hotaru whispered suddenly. Everybody turned to her.

"Hotaru?" Usa asked.

"Miss Hotaru-ma'am is looking for Miss Pluto-ma'am with her head," Palla-Palla explained. "Palla-Palla can feel her."

"Have you found her?" Usa asked quickly.

"Cold," Hotaru repeated. "Numb. Vacant. Nothing."

"You didn't find her?" Cere-Cere asked.

"I-I don't know. I think it's her," Hotaru murmured, spooked by what she felt, "but I don't feel anything from her."

"She's not - - dead, is she?" Usa asked fearfully.

Hotaru seemed genuinely afraid. "I don't know," she squeaked.

"Can you lead us to her?"

Hotaru nodded.

"Let's go," Usa said, springing out of her chair. She and Ves-Ves hustled Hotaru up and out into the street, transforming into their senshi guises as they went. Cere-Cere and Palla-Palla quickly followed.

"We need to call the Elders!" Jun-Jun called after them.

"Fine, call them!" barked Cere-Cere. "You can call and run at the same time, can't you?"

Jun-Jun emitted an inarticulate grunt of frustration and followed.

Everyone was following Hotaru, who was so busy concentrating on her psychic link to Sailor Pluto that she hadn't transformed. They didn't have to travel far. At the end of the retail district, near the border of Naru Park, was a small crystalline media shop. It sold recording and playback media, parts and accessories, and seemed to dabble in repairs as well. Hardly what one might expect for the lair of a legendary criminal like Viluy.

"Something's weird here," Sailor Juno told the others. "I've been trying to com-link with the palace the whole trip and I can't get a carrier signal. It's just static."

"It's not broken, is it?" Sailor Ceres asked.

"No, it's not broken," Juno replied. "I just hope it's not being jammed."

The group looked over the storefront.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Sailor Vesta asked.

"At the moment I'm not sure of anything," Hotaru responded, her brow furrowed with confusion and worry. "Everything I'm feeling seems contradictory. It makes no sense. But the strongest feeling I have is that Sailor Pluto is here."

Suddenly Sailor Pallas turned to Sailor Moon.

"You know this place, Princess?" she asked. Then Pallas grew embarrassed. "Oopsie. Pallas is sorry. She heard your thoughts without saying 'May I'."

"Sailor Moon?" Hotaru asked, turning to her friend.

"Yeah, this is it," Sailor Moon whispered. "Viluy had a huge fortress right on this spot in that other reality!"

"You're right, My Lady!" gasped Diana. "This is the spot! When you changed history back, the area reverted to what it was before. And no doubt Viluy is here, because space didn't shift about her, only time!"

"Good enough for me. Let's go," Vesta snarled. She and Juno entered the shop while Hotaru hung back and transformed into Sailor Saturn.

"Good afternoon," the young saleswoman said, smiling and bowing crisply. "Thank you for patronizing our shop. How may I assist you?"

"You can show us where Viluy's hiding," Vesta said, projecting all the street menace she'd learned on the streets of Sao Paulo.

"I apologize," smiled the clerk. "I don't recognize that. Is it a device or a brand name?"

"Dolly!" squealed Pallas. Everyone turned to her and saw Sailor Pallas was pointing directly at the saleswoman.

"Dolly?" queried Juno, puzzled.

"It's an android!" shouted Diana.

In an instant, the saleswoman was over the counter and lunging for Sailor Vesta. Vesta fell back defensively, but seriously miscalculated the woman's speed. She was seconds away from feeling the woman's attack. Then out of the blue a gleam of metal flashed and suddenly the woman's head was separated from her neck. Only when it stopped could anyone see Saturn's glaive.

Ceres shrieked and the others looked on in startled horror as the severed head fell to the floor. It bounced twice, then rolled to a stop near a display. Only then could they see the sparking circuitry rather than muscle and blood in the neck. The Asteroids gaped in wonder, for this was the first time any of them had ever seen an actual android.

"You broke the dolly!" pouted Pallas.

"That's an android?" Juno gasped, staring at the non-functional entity. "It looked totally human!"

"That's part of what makes it an android," Sailor Moon replied. "It's probably part of what creeps Mom out. After fighting them, I can kind of understand why. If Luna-P wasn't shorted out, I could have spotted it."

"But we've got our own spotter right here," Ceres smiled. She knelt down to Pallas. "Pallas, you can tell the difference between a person and a 'dolly', can't you?"

Pallas nodded energetically. "Pallas can tell right away!"

Ceres turned to the others. "No android's going to sneak up on us now."

It was then they noticed Sailor Juno examining the walls of the small shop.

"What are you doing?" Ceres inquired.

"This shop is probably a blind for Viluy's lab," Juno explained. "I'm trying to find the door to it. I've already checked the back room."

"How do you know it's there?" Vesta asked.

"The moisture content in the air is different behind this section of wall than the others," Juno explained. "Stagnant air has a lower moisture content than air that flows because the moisture has a chance to condense. I can sense moisture and my senses tell me the passage to an underground level is behind this section of wall." Juno kept feeling along the wall. "I just can't find the sensor that opens it."

"It's probably opened electronically, either from below or through a broadcast signal," reasoned Saturn. "We'll have to force it open."

"Ohh! Let Pallas do it! Pretty please!" Pallas exclaimed.

"Think you can, Stupid?" Vesta asked.

"Just watch! Pallas will show you!" The diminutive senshi gestured at the wall. "Beautiful Incantation!"

For moments there was nothing changed save for the silent strain of Sailor Pallas. As time passed, each senshi wanted to call the effort to a halt, but held back, fearing they might bruise Pallas' confidence. And yet the fate of Sailor Pluto and of the world at large hung over their decision as well.

Then metal began to rend as gears were forced back and magnetic couplings were broken. The wall inched to the left, slowly at first. Finally resistance disappeared and the wall flung back, revealing a gliding stairwell behind it. Pallas beamed in triumph as she received a congratulatory pat on the back from Vesta.

"Keep your guard up, everyone," Juno warned as she led the group through the wall section and onto the gliding stairwell. "Stay back, Princess. Let us go first. Vesta, you guard our rear. Pallas, up with me. Keep watch for androids."

"Right, Juno," Pallas nodded as everyone formed up.

"Forcing that door was kind of loud," Ceres speculated. "You suppose she knows we're here?"

"She already knew," Juno replied.

"How?"

"If she had some telemetry from the android, our deactivating it would have tipped her," Juno explained. "And she's probably got the shop monitored. Maybe this gliding stairwell, too."

"Do you HAVE to be so smart ALL the time?" huffed Ceres.

Juno smiled to herself. "Sense anything, Pallas?"

"No," Pallas squeaked. "But Pallas doesn't like this place."

"Saturn?" Sailor Moon asked, turning to her friend.

"I'm with Pallas," Saturn replied. "There's something about this place. I can't explain it, but I'm getting bad vibes from it. But I can't understand any of the impressions I'm getting."

The six senshi reached the floor of the below ground level and stepped off. There was little light. It seemed mostly to be emitted from display terminals of environmental control computers at the far end of the room. The distance from them told the senshi that the underground level dwarfed the shop above.

"I wish we had some light," Vesta muttered.

"There are banks of lights in the ceiling," Diana told them. "But I can't tell you which computer controls them."

"Leave it to Pallas," Sailor Pallas said suddenly. She pointed up at the ceiling. "Beautiful Incantation."

One by one the lights came on, illuminating in succession a room housing the most gigantic computer complex any of them had ever seen - - with the exception of Diana and Sailor Moon. To them it was hauntingly familiar, only not as large - - and didn't have a screen for a holographic representation of Ami Mizuno's face. As one bank of lights lit, they illuminated a cryogenic chamber.

"Pluto-mama!" Saturn gasped out. The senshi bolted for the cryogenic tube.

Without warning, Saturn crashed face first into an energy barrier. The energy gripped the violet senshi and she cried out in agony. As Saturn lost her grip on the Silence Glaive, Sailor Moon lurched forward to try to pull her away. But the energy flung her away itself and Saturn staggered back, then fell to the floor. Pallas let out a squeal of shock and fear while Juno and Ceres knelt down to tend to their fallen comrade.

"It's just like before!" Sailor Moon whispered.

"Indeed," a voice echoed from the darkness. It was a voice familiar to Sailor Moon and Diana, dimly so to Sailor Saturn, but new to the rest. The click of high heels on the floor pinpointed her for them. Stepping from the shadows, wearing a form-fitting anti-contamination suit much like the one Dr. Mizuno often wore, her platinum hair falling softly across her left eye to a large inward curl at the shoulders, was the infamous Yui Bidou - - Viluy.

Continued in Chapter 9


	9. Building A Better Viluy

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 9: "Building a Better Viluy"

By Bill K.

One by one the lights came on, illuminating in succession a room housing the most gigantic computer complex any of them had ever seen - - with the exception of Diana and Sailor Moon. To them it was hauntingly familiar. As one bank of lights lit, they illuminated a cryogenic chamber.

"Pluto-mama!" Saturn gasped out. The senshi bolted for the cryogenic tube.

Without warning, Saturn crashed face first into an energy barrier. The energy gripped the violet senshi and she cried out in agony. As she lost her grip on the Silence Glaive, Sailor Moon lurched forward to try to pull Saturn away. But the energy flung her back itself and Saturn staggered back, then fell to the floor. Pallas let out a squeal of shock and fear while Juno and Ceres knelt down to tend to their fallen comrade.

"It's just like before!" Sailor Moon whispered.

"Indeed," a voice echoed from the darkness. It was a voice familiar to Sailor Moon and Diana, dimly so to Sailor Saturn, but new to the rest. The click of high heels on the floor pinpointed her for them. Stepping from the shadows, wearing a form-fitting anti-contamination suit much like the one Dr. Mizuno often wore, her platinum hair falling softly across her left eye to a large inward curl at the shoulders, was the infamous Yui Bidou - - Viluy.

"Viluy!" Sailor Moon almost spat.

"Princess Usagi," Viluy smiled. Sailor Moon reacted in shock. This wasn't quite the Viluy she met in her alternate future, the cybernetic parody of human life that claimed superiority by virtue of her cybernetic parts. This Viluy looked completely human and impossibly young. But it was the same Viluy in one respect, that being the cruel, merciless gleam in her ice blue eyes and the contempt for a race she no longer claimed and felt superior to. "Yes, I know your other identity. It wasn't a difficult deduction, given who your mother and father are."

Without concern for her safety, since she no longer regarded the senshi as a threat, Viluy clacked across the floor and up to the energy barrier holding them prisoner.

"And yes, I was monitoring you," she continued. "I've been monitoring you since you returned from that strange dimensional nexus that exists within the palace. I know how you went into the past and managed to undo everything I did to change the past. And now that you're neutralized, I can send another android back and finish the job of killing Queen Serenity before she inherits her crystal and her power."

Gasps of horror went up from the other senshi, who hadn't been told of this part of the plot. Sailor Moon lunged forward, but stopped short of the barrier. Diana was by her side, watching as Viluy dispatched an android into a chamber in the far corner of the vast room. The android took its place in the chamber, a transparent tube on an energized pad with a domed top. The tube flared brightly and in seconds the android was gone.

"Gracious!" whispered Diana. "You've managed to duplicate localized time travel?"

Viluy gave the cat an evil look, as if Diana had reminded her of something unpleasant.

"No," the platinum blonde finally admitted. "That process still eludes me. I do know that there is a corridor that allows travel back and forth between times and that you and your princess access it through that dimensional nexus." She glanced angrily at the frozen Sailor Pluto. "I had a way once, but its been barred to me now and I haven't found a way around the barrier." A smile grew on Viluy's face. "So I developed an effective matter teleportation process instead. With this, I project a subject into the dimensional nexus and the subject accesses time from there."

"Teleportation of humans isn't possible scientifically!" Diana argued.

"But the android is non-organic," Viluy replied. "And teleportation of non-organic material is quite simple - - for me."

By now Sailor Saturn was recovering. She rose to her feet with the help of Sailor Ceres and focused on Viluy for the first time.

"Hotaru Tomoe," Viluy said smugly. "My, but you've come up in the world. I remember you when you were just a little girl - - sitting on that towering throne, surrounded by all your plush toys - - consuming the heart crystals of innocents."

"I remember you, too, Viluy," Saturn scowled bitterly. "You were one of the Witches Five. You and the others were always sucking up to my father, but whenever his back was turned, you wouldn't miss an opportunity to torment me."

"And now you're a sailor senshi," Viluy mocked.

"Some of us grow," Saturn retorted, "and some of us just get older!"

It was out of Saturn's mind before she realized it. The psychic dagger released, headed straight for Viluy. Of all the others, only Pallas realized it and gasped slightly. Saturn tried to pull it back for a moment, then let it go.

Few people deserved it more than Viluy.

But in an instant, the room filled with a high-pitched whine. Sailor Moon bent over, covering her ears to try to shield herself from the ear-splitting noise. The effect was worse for Saturn and Pallas. Each senshi collapsed to her knees, Saturn grinding her teeth while Pallas howled in agony and burst into tears.

"Did you think I wouldn't be prepared for your abilities?" Viluy asked as if she were lecturing infants. "That sound is at the precise frequency that interferes with psychic ability."

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" bellowed Vesta, impotently trying to shield Pallas.

"Why?" Viluy mocked. "What were you going to do - - strike me perhaps? I seriously doubt your feeble mind could manage many alternatives beyond that."

The others could see the rage welling in the girl. Viluy stood unimpressed.

"Fauna Assimilation - - Elephant!"

Within seconds, Vesta had transformed into a towering elephant. Without hesitating, the elephant charged the barrier head first at top speed. She impacted the barrier, causing it to sizzle and spit. Straining her huge muscles to the fullest, Vesta pushed against the wall of energy. But the barrier held and thrust the huge pachyderm backwards. Juno and Diana had to scramble to avoid being crushed by the weight of the animal. Once on the floor, she reverted to Sailor Vesta. The senshi was dazed by the attempt.

"Just the response I would have expected from you," Viluy sneered. "Apparently you've yet to grasp the fact that brute force has no currency in this situation - - and quite frankly you don't have the intellect to beat me."

"Not," Vesta gasped, her rage feeding her recovery, "beaten yet."

"Juno?" Ceres whispered to her fellow senshi.

"I've been trying to sense a nearby water source, but she's shielded all the pipes," Juno replied quietly. "She must have shielded herself, too. You?"

"I can't sense a plant within half a kilometer of this place," Ceres answered. "She's got us stumped."

And Pallas continued to hold her head and wail.

"Not done yet!" growled Vesta, forcing herself up off the floor. "Fauna assimilation - - Tyrannosaurus Rex!"

With a squeal of alarm, Ceres scampered to the far side of the holding pen, avoiding Vesta's expansion. The senshi's transformation into a twenty-five foot dinosaur rapidly filled the holding pen everyone was trapped in. As her scaly hide pressed against the walls and ceiling of the energy barrier, Vesta roared in defiance at the agony it brought her. The barrier itself sizzled loudly, straining to contain the mass suddenly pressing against it. Viluy backed up, startled that Vesta would attempt such a ploy. The energy whine grew louder, threatening to drown out the anti-psychic squeal.

"Vesta, stop it!" shouted Juno. "You're burning yourself!"

The dinosaur roared a defiant reply and pushed on.

Viluy, mentally calculating the energy capacity of her barrier against the energy needed to contain this new situation, reached a conclusion she didn't like and turned for her computers. She didn't reach them in time. The barrier shorted out and the feedback power surge blew out several of the computers in her bank. Thankfully the anti-psychic whine died with it.

"Ceres, form up on me! I've got an idea!" Juno barked out. "Vesta . . .!"

But Vesta wasn't listening. The huge dinosaur pivoted on legs large enough and powerful enough to crush a bus, its tiny eye and keen smell searching out Viluy. The evil genius gave ground, keeping Vesta in sight at all times. Vesta took a giant step forward and for a moment Juno and Ceres caught a whiff of scorched flesh.

To their surprise, though, both senshi realized that Vesta seemed unable to locate Viluy. That hesitation was quickly seized upon by the icy blonde. A hand held laser pistol, outlawed in the confines of Japan by the Queen, popped up out of a compartment of a nearby console and Viluy snapped it up. A single moment later the pistol was aimed at the hulking dinosaur searching desperately for an adversary it could no longer sense. Viluy's finger squeezed the trigger.

"Silence Wall!" shouted Sailor Saturn and the laser was deflected from Vesta. Hearing the air sizzle from the beam, Vesta turned to the sound of it.

"Aqua Initiation!" Sailor Juno called out.

She cupped her hands and vapor began to swirl to her. By sucking all the moisture out of the air in the room, Juno was able to form a small amount of water she kept formed in a small ball levitating between her cupped hands. When she had every drop, Juno pulled back and launched the ball at Viluy like a projectile. The small globe of water sped across the room and impacted Viluy like a thrown rock. The woman staggered backwards. When she righted herself, Ceres was upon her.

"Pollen Attack!" Ceres shouted, spraying Viluy with a yellowish pollen from a small pouch she kept in her glove. The cloud dissipated and Ceres waited for the anesthetic in the pollen to take effect.

Viluy responded with a vicious backhand blow that threw Ceres to the ground. Juno stared in amazement, for nothing human could stand up against Ceres' pollen. In her peripheral vision, she saw Sailor Moon run to Ceres' side. On her right flank, she felt Saturn behind her.

"Ceres?" Sailor Moon inquired.

"Should have worked," gasped Ceres, wracked with pain. "Hit her right in the face. Oh, my jaw hurts! If she put a bruise on my face . . .!"

Raising her hand, Sailor Moon summoned the Moon Scepter. There was no more time to waste.

"Moon Princess Halation!" she called out. Pink tendrils of energy radiated out, seeking out Viluy at top speed. The tendrils encircled the icy blonde, trying to work their soothing, healing magic on her. But to everyone's surprise, Viluy stood unfazed by the energy.

"It-it didn't work," Sailor Moon gasped, horrified. She turned to Diana. "How?"

"I don't know," the cat replied. "Somehow she's managed to neutralize all of our attacks."

"Was that supposed to do something, Princess?" Viluy sneered. The others moved closer, trying to surround her. Viluy seemed unconcerned.

"This is taking too long," Sailor Moon whispered. "We've got to get back into the past and stop that second android!"

"That's not necessary, My Lady," Diana told her. "We've already dealt with it."

Sailor Moon glanced at her, perplexed.

"Didn't you recognize the android?" Diana inquired. "It was the one in the tree outside of Chibi-Usagi's bedroom. We've already dealt with it."

"Then all we have to do is stop Viluy," Sailor Moon heaved a sigh of relief.

"You don't have a chance of stopping me!" Viluy roared defiantly at the others. "My logic will triumph over your emotionalism!"

"You hurt Pallas!" Pallas yelled petulantly. "And you hurt Pallas' sisters! You're mean and Pallas doesn't like you!" Juno glanced behind her and saw the fury in Sailor Pallas' face, fury she'd never quite seen before. "Beautiful Incantation!"

All the inanimate objects in the room began to shake. Those that were attached to something wriggled urgently. Those that weren't anchored suddenly shot into the air, then propelled at Viluy with the speed of a bullet. But Viluy pressed a crystal stud on the control panel and an energy barrier shot up like a shield, deflecting the projectiles.

"Are you all right?" Juno asked Vesta, who had shed her dinosaur form and returned to normal.

"Back hurts," Vesta replied in clipped fashion. "Don't worry about it."

"So why didn't you attack her?"

"I didn't know where she was! I couldn't see very well in that form and I couldn't smell her at all!" Vesta shot Pallas a worried glance. "Think Pallas can break through?"

Undaunted, Pallas continued until fragments of precious equipment rained down upon Viluy. The energy shield held, though, keeping the metal projectiles from touching Viluy's smooth pink skin. Finally Pallas grew tired and sank to her knees, the final piece of debris wavering in the air and then dropping to the ground.

"An impressive display of PKE," Viluy smirked as Pallas hung her head and panted. "And from a clearly inferior mind like yours. I'll have to make a mental note to study that more closely."

"This has gone on long enough," came the pronouncement from Saturn. She held her glaive in one hand and marched steadily toward Viluy.

"Cautiously, Sailor Saturn," Viluy warned. "I'm prepared for whatever you might want to throw at me."

"Are you?" Saturn queried, continuing to approach Viluy without fear. Closer and closer she drew to the energy shield Viluy still had erected.

Then, faster than the eye could detect, Saturn's glaive struck. It seemed like only a flash of metal caught by the light. But one moment Viluy's energy shield was there and the next moment there was just sparks from something that had been but was no longer. Her hand came to rest and the glaive was in it

And then it was moving again. When next it came to rest, the point was aimed under Viluy's chin.

"Total molecular bonding reversal," Viluy whispered, awed, as the sharp point of Saturn's glaive pressed under her chin. "Fascinating."

"You will surrender yourself to us immediately," Saturn growled and chills went down the spines of Juno and Vesta. "You will restore Sailor Pluto and abandon any plans you have for traveling in time."

"Or you'll slit my throat?" Viluy responded contemptuously.

Saturn held the point of the glaive to Viluy's chin.

"You can't kill me," Viluy sneered.

"You'd be sickened by what I can do when my family and my friends are being threatened," Saturn replied. There was a coldness to her gaze that whispered to anyone willing to listen that she wasn't kidding.

"No, you misunderstand," lectured Viluy, seconds away from death. "That wasn't a judgment. That was a statement."

Suddenly Viluy's hands clamped onto the glaive. Electricity shot from Viluy into the glaive and passed on to Saturn. The violet senshi went rigid, then began convulsing as electricity shot through her.

"She's an android!" cried Juno. "That's why you couldn't get her scent! Why Ceres' sleep pollen didn't work! She's not human!"

"Beautiful Incantation!" screamed Pallas.

Invisible hands grabbed the glaive and wrenched it away from Viluy. The circuit broken, Saturn slumped to the floor. Vesta was about to lunge as Juno checked Saturn, but Viluy erected her energy shield again.

"Can't you morons see the futility of this?" growled Viluy. "The deed has already been done! The world you know is doomed, doomed to be replaced with a reality of my choosing - - one where logic and intellect rule over everything, even if it comes from a society of android life!"

"But you're human!" Ceres retorted. "You'll be dooming yourself along with everyone else! How long will it be until the androids turn on you?"

"Weren't you listening to your friend?" Viluy sneered. "I have a completely artificial body now. She surmised correctly." Viluy turned to Juno. "But you didn't go far enough. I am more than a mere android. I possess the encephalophic engrams of the original Viluy. I am, for all intents and purposes, Viluy, but a Viluy unencumbered by the faults and frailties of humanity. I don't age. I don't tire. I don't love. I am, therefore, the perfect candidate to lead a society of logical, emotionless humanoids."

They all heard Sailor Moon rise. Pallas and Saturn glanced over at her.

"Then when is it supposed to happen?" the pink-tressed senshi asked.

"What?" Viluy asked, puzzled by the question.

"I guess you didn't quite get all the emotion out," the teen continued. "You've been too busy gloating over your triumph and enjoying beating us up that you forgot."

"Forgot what!" Viluy demanded.

"The change. If your android assassin went back in time and killed my mom, why hasn't our present changed? Why am I even here? If Mom died at four, I shouldn't exist! And yet, here I am. Why is that? Why is everything still the same?"

Viluy was about to reply, then stopped short. A look of distress began to grow on her face.

"Something wrong?" Sailor Moon asked, unable to completely conceal her smirk.

"It - - the unit must have failed," Viluy mumbled to herself, calculating probabilities in her head. Then she looked up at Sailor Moon with realization. "YOU DID THIS! You stopped it from happening again!"

"Now, Pallas," Sailor Moon said quickly.

"BEAUTIFUL INCANTATION!" Pallas yelled, gesturing in Viluy's direction with her hands. Viluy crouched behind her energy shield, but the attack wasn't headed for her. The computer console behind her began to crumple as if crushed by a pair of gigantic invisible hands. The energy shield sputtered, then winked out.

"Fauna Assimilation - - lion!" Vesta roared, lunging for Viluy. Half the distance from the android, her body mutated into a full grown African lioness. Vesta leaped at the retreating Viluy and landed about shoulder high, ready to bring her down with superior strength and leverage.

But Viluy shrugged Vesta off and continued on course. It was then everyone realized that she was headed for the transport tube she'd earlier sent her android assassin off in.

"Aqua Initiation!" Juno called out, cupping her hands to make another water projectile. But there wasn't enough moisture left in the air to form much. Sailor Moon had her tiara off and ready to use, but before she could energize it into a disk, Viluy was in the tube and gone.

"Where do you think she went?" Vesta asked, mutating back into a senshi.

Sailor Moon didn't answer, but Diana knew the princess had a good idea where Viluy was headed.

Continued in Chapter 10


	10. The Trap

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 10: "The Trap"

By Bill K.

"Come on!" Vesta roared, mutating back into a human from the lioness form she had worn. "After her before she gets away!"

"Vesta, stop!" screeched Juno. Vesta was rushing to the teleport tube, Pallas following diligently behind her. Both senshi came to a screeching halt, but only Vesta looked back impatiently at her sister senshi.

"It's not safe for human transport, Moron!" Ceres barked, helping Saturn to her feet. "Viluy only used it because she's an artificial life form now! God, you're dumb!"

"So what do we do?" demanded Vesta. "Just let her get away?"

"I'll go after her," Sailor Moon told them. "I think I know where she's going. And if I don't, Diana and I can find her. We found her once."

"But what if we're already too late?" Ceres asked.

"The fact that I'm still here means we're not," Sailor Moon answered.

"However, perhaps it would be prudent to go after her as soon as possible," Diana recommended. Sailor Moon gave her a curious look. "I know I told you that in time travel it doesn't matter when you leave because you're headed for a specific moment regardless - - it's just - - well, the longer we wait, the more concerned I am about a temporal change occurring and wiping you out of existence."

Diana looked up and found Sailor Moon staring across the room. Momentarily annoyed, the cat followed Sailor Moon's line of sight and found Saturn walking toward the cryogenic tube that held Sailor Pluto.

"Saturn," Sailor Moon said softly, coming up behind her at Saturn stared down at the tube. "You're not going to try to heal her by yourself, are you?"

"I know I shouldn't," Saturn whispered. "It might be more than I can manage. But I have to try, don't I?"

"Sensei Mizuno-sama can thaw her more safely," Juno suggested.

"But Sailor Moon may need her help now," Saturn offered, almost as an alibi to cover that she desperately needed to help the woman she thought of as "Setsuna-mama".

Then she felt a hand close around hers. She looked over and found Sailor Moon clutching her hand.

"Maybe you or I don't have the power to do it by ourselves," Sailor Moon said. Her grip tightened on Saturn's hand. "But together . . .?" and she shrugged.

Saturn's eyes misted. "Thank you, Usa," she whispered.

"Hey," Sailor Moon grinned, "she was my friend before she was your mama."

"My Lady!" Diana prodded urgently.

"We can take time to do this," the pink senshi replied.

At a silent signal from Sailor Moon, Juno cut the power to the cryogenic tube. Instantly auras flared around the two senshi. Sailor Moon's was pink, while Sailor Saturn's was a deep violet. The others watched as both teens slipped into a trance. Their auras began to merge,  
swirling around the pair. Vesta glanced at Pallas and noticed the girl was staring blankly at them.

"Pallas?" Vesta prodded her. "What's wrong, Stupid?"

"Pretty colors," Pallas whispered absently. She seemed hypnotized by the light show of aura energy, or else by the psychic energy the pair were transmitting.

When their auras were perfectly blended, Sailor Moon raised her free hand. The Moon Scepter appeared in it. Sailor Moon mechanically pointed it at the frozen Pluto.

"Moon Princess," Sailor Moon said distantly, and silently Saturn mimicked her mouth movements, "Halation."

Pink radiation blended with streaks of violet shot out from the Scepter and bathed Sailor Pluto in its energy. Gradually the blue coloring of Sailor Pluto's skin began to recede, first to white and then to a more normal beige. Within moments her chest began to rise and fall. Her eyelids remain closed, but there was eye movement beneath. Suddenly, stiffly, her forearms moved. They rose up, then crossed over Pluto's chest. Her lips pulled into a smile, then formed a silent word.

Refresh.

The power died away. Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn's hands released from one another from fatigue. Saturn took a deep, steadying breath. She was tired, drained. But she opened her eyes and looked - - and found Juno and Ceres helping Sailor Pluto out of the cryogenic tube.

"Mama!" she choked and flew across the room, diving into Pluto's arms. She pressed her face to Pluto's breast to hide her tears.

"Hotaru-chan," the normally implacable Sailor Pluto whispered, smiling sadly as she held the girl to her.

"Diana," the gray cat heard Sailor Moon prompt softly. She looked up at her Princess. "Let's get going."

"Are you sufficiently recovered, My Lady?"

"Yeah," Sailor Moon nodded. The cat gave her a suspicious look. "Come on. We've got Moms to save."

With that, Sailor Moon quietly darted up the floating stairs to ground level. Only Juno noticed her leave. She didn't say anything because she knew it would do no good.

"Setsuna-mama, I-I was so scared for you!" Saturn whimpered, refusing to let go of the senshi of time.

"I-I must confess to," Pluto stammered out, "to some confusion. I . . ."

Saturn felt her go limp and slump against the slight young senshi's body. It was momentarily a struggle to support Pluto's full limp weight. However, Juno and Ceres quickly moved in. Together the trio eased Sailor Pluto down to the floor and propped her up against a wall. As the others watched, Saturn gripped Pluto by the shoulders and felt along her cheek.

"Mama?" Saturn asked, her voice frantic and edgy. Pluto seemed dazed and incoherent. The violet senshi wondered if she had enough energy left to her to attempt another healing.

"Forgive me," Pluto replied, her coloring pale and her eyes closed. She brought a shaky hand up to her head. "I - - too much - - I cannot focus. Events of the past and future swirl around me. I cannot tell what is real and what is not."

"What can we do?" Saturn pleaded.

Pluto expelled a shuddering breath.

"Tell me," she began, her eyes still closed to shut out as much excess stimuli as possible, "tell me what has happened."

"You don't remember?" Juno inquired.

"I remember too much!" wheezed Pluto. "So many contradictory events assault my brain that I cannot determine what is and what was from what might have been and what is yet to come." She opened her eyes and looked intently at Sailor Saturn. "You must tell me what has happened, so I can determine where reality begins and ends."

"Is this some sort of effect of the," Vesta began to ask, then halted over her next word. "Um, of her being frozen?"

"Could be," Juno replied. "I'm calling in Sensei Mizuno-sama."

"NO!" Pluto shouted anxiously. "You must not!"

"Why?" Juno asked, spooked by her adamance. Pluto only gripped her head again.

"I see," Pluto began, then caught herself. "I see a danger. I cannot yet know if it is real, if it exists in a future to be or one forever barred. For her safety, we must not bring her here until I know it is safe."

"Sailor Pluto, you're hurt!" Juno protested.

"I need only know what has transpired to heal that which afflicts me." Again she turned to Saturn. "Please tell me."

"All right," Saturn nodded. "Apparently you were captured by Viluy."

"Yes," Pluto replied, her eyes staring off into space, into her own past.

"She planned to go back into time and murder Queen Serenity when she was a little girl. I-I guess Sailor Moon stopped her. She probably needed you out of the way."

"I remember now," Pluto whispered. "She appeared in the dimensional pocket where the Door of Time exists - - the single place in the universe where I am incapable of seeing the future. She thus took me by surprise. She was quite fast - - faster than a normal human." Pluto covered her mouth with her hand. "Yes, I see it clearly now. Viluy digitally transferred her brain into an artificial body. It explains much."

"What happened?" Ceres asked.

Pluto glanced at her, mortified by memories of her failure. "I was overcome. I assumed I fought a human and was overcome because of my miscalculation. From there, Viluy was free to use the Door of Time itself for her murderous schemes. Once more I failed in my mission as guardian."

"It's all right, Mama," Saturn told her. "Sailor Moon fixed things."

"Once," Pluto replied, "and only through the fortune of fate and the gods. I can see clearly now all that has happened." She looked directly at Saturn. "Viluy initially succeeded."

A chill ran through the room.

"I must go," Pluto said. She struggled to get to her feet.

"Mama, no! You're hurt! You still need to rest!" cried Saturn.

"I will rest," Pluto told her, though she still struggled to her feet. "I must, for I must be at full strength. But I must take the precaution of resting within the dimensional nexus. For only there will I be safe and able to act. My Lady will have need of me."

She was about to stagger off when a hand caught her wrist. Pluto turned and found Sailor Vesta holding onto her.

"Take us with you," Vesta almost demanded.

"I cannot," Pluto replied. "There is no place for you five in this particular past." She started to leave again.

Then, gripping her staff with both hands, Pluto struck it nose first to the floor and gave it a quarter turn to the left. She faded from sight like a wraith.

* * *

Sailor Moon slipped out of the media shop and raced down the Promenade toward the Elevated. The Elevated was an interconnected series of pathways above the sidewalks, but below the city's organized air car traffic. Each pathway was made of flat, smooth conductive material. Located at each entrance to the pathway were platforms about 750 centimeters wide designed for individual travel. The platforms ran on superconductor technology and had handlebars for the passenger to hang onto and steer with. The Elevated was two to three times faster than walking, twice as fast as running and not as exerting - - perfect for the senshi in a hurry. In moments Sailor Moon was atop the Elevated and on a platform.

"Come on, Diana!" the senshi said impatiently, looking back at the hesitant gray cat.

"Must we, My Lady?" frowned the cat. "You know of my aversion to those - - contraptions!"

"If we're going to get to the palace before Viluy rewrites us out of history, yes!"

"Perhaps I can - - catch up with you?" Diana offered.

"Stop being a 'fraidy cat!"

"There is no need to use disparaging stereotypes! And I have good reason to be wary of this - - device! It was not designed with cats in mind!"

"That excuse would be more believable if you weren't scared of the vacuum-bots, too," scowled Sailor Moon.

"And if you were as close to the floor as I am, you'd be wary of them as well!" Diana huffed. Sailor Moon replied with an impatient look. "Oh, very well! But do steer cautiously, My Lady!"

"No promises," Sailor Moon replied as the cat gingerly mounted the platform. The pink senshi kicked away from the entrance and onto the conductive pathway, then lurched into traffic at top speed, weaving in and out of other travelers headed toward the palace.

With Diana's claws sunk into the material of her boot.

Barely coming to a stop at the palace station, Sailor Moon hit the station running and raced to the palace. The greeter at the entrance barely had time to acknowledge her as she flew by, her twin trails of pink hair resembling a comet's tail. However, she and the palace staff were used to the energetic Princess flying by them, so nothing was thought to be amiss. Gaining the part of the palace that housed the dimensional nexus, Sailor Moon plunged through it and into the non-time limbo where the Door of Time dwelled, Diana hot on her heels. Once inside, though, she came to a sudden stop. Diana barely avoided crashing into her calf and peered up inquiringly at her.

"What is it, Sailor Moon?" Diana asked.

Sailor Moon looked around warily.

"Think about it, Diana," Sailor Moon whispered, still casting suspicious glances around the misty nothingness of the dimensional limbo. "Viluy is supposed to be smarter than anyone, even as smart as Aunt Ami. She'd have to know we'd follow her, right?"

"It would be prudent to assume so," Diana replied.

"So wouldn't it be logical to stop us first, then go back in time anytime she wanted to and try to kill Mom?"

"Yes. Otherwise she'd only achieve stalemate as we'd continue to travel back in time and undo what she's done."

"And if you were going to set a trap for us," Sailor Moon asked, maintaining her vigil, "where would you do it?"

"Here in the dimensional limbo," Diana answered. "The single place she'd be sure we'd be in sooner or later. Very good, Sailor Moon."

"But where is she?" Sailor Moon posed. "I wish Luna-P was still working."

"Perhaps you can trace her. You just need to search with something other than your eyes and ears."

"Once again, with clarity," Sailor Moon suggested.

"Connect with your crystal, My Lady," Diana told her. "Use it to search for Viluy's energy. Your crystal has a natural affinity with life and the force that powers us all. That's one of the gifts your father passed down to you."

"But Viluy's not really alive," argued the teen. "She's an artificial life form now."

"But something powers her android form. Search for the power force that is the opposite of life. You should be able to sense it because it will seem alien and uninviting to you."

"OK, I'll try."

Sailor Moon reluctantly closed her eyes and reached out to her pink crystal. When she connected, she could see the limbo in a different way, even with her eyes closed. Diana was right next to her, glowing like a small sun. Even the limbo itself seemed to give off a smaller glow, though it was colder and less inviting.

"This must be what Diana was talking about," Sailor Moon thought.

Encouraged, she began to sweep the area around her with her mind. She could see the swirling mists in her mind, for they had a different energy signature than the limbo itself and seemed to cloak parts of the area like a sheer curtain. As she scanned, Sailor Moon wondered if perhaps Viluy wasn't there, if she had in fact gone on to the past. A part of her wanted to give up and head back into the past to stop her, but that part was shushed by a newer, more mature part of her brain. This was the dimensional limbo. Here they had all the time in the world.

And all as once she spotted something glowing along the violet end of the spectrum. It was alien and uninviting, almost the antithesis of life itself.

"Viluy!" she announced, her eyes flashing open. At once she spotted a metallic belt buckle speeding toward her head with the velocity of a bullet. Only the forewarning of her crystal's vision allowed her to narrowly avoid its path.

"You senshi continue to surprise me," Viluy said, boldly stepping out from the concealment of the swirling mists. "Perhaps that's why I've lost so many skirmishes with your mother and her friends. Unknowns inject too many variables into an equation to be successfully accounted for."

"Or maybe you're just fighting on the wrong side!" Sailor Moon growled. She pulled her tiara from her head, ready to energize it.

"A rather simplistic view of things," snickered Viluy. "But then, no more than what I would expect, given your social enculturation. Your mother never did have a very sophisticated world view. She's only kept her 'society of benevolent monarchy' going this long through the force of her own will. The moment she's gone, it will crumble under the weight of humanity's ingrained greed and violence."

The tip of Viluy's right index finger, dangling at the woman's side, began to spark with electricity. It caught Sailor Moon's eyes and she warily steadied herself for an attack.

But the attack came from twin prongs launched from Viluy's belt. They pierced the senshi's chest like twin hypodermic needles. In the moment it took for this to register, Sailor Moon noticed the prongs were attached to thin wire. Then her world was sent spinning into complete chaos as electricity passed through the wire and into her body. Sailor Moon was seized up, shuddering helplessly under the influence of the voltage. Her vision was clouded yellow with sharp thin black streaks buzzing through it. The pain of the attack overwhelmed every conscious thought the girl had. Then the electricity stopped and Sailor Moon slumped to the floor like a marionette bereft of strings.

Hissing violently, her ears laid back and her eyes glowing with hatred, Diana launched herself at Viluy's face, teeth and claws bared.

"Get away from me, animal!" snapped Viluy, delivering a vicious backhand blow that sent Diana careening off into the mists of the limbo..

Satisfied that there were no more interruptions, Viluy turned back to her foe. She walked casually up to the fallen, quivering Sailor Moon and stood towering over her.

"Much as I would be interested in how you and your body would react to conscious vivisection," Viluy said, licking her lips in an involuntary human response, "I am on a schedule. It's too bad this body doesn't carry enough current to electrocute you. But certain laws of physics are immutable. I calculate that snapping your neck would probably be the quickest way of permanently dealing with you."

And she bent down, her hand extended for Sailor Moon's soft pink throat, while the senshi looked up at her helplessly.

Continued in Chapter 11


	11. Past Due

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 11: "Past Due"

By Bill K.

In the dense mists of the temporal limbo, Sailor Moon looked up into the cold, contemptuous, artificial eyes of Viluy as the villainess reached down to grab her throat and crush her windpipe. The woman's platinum hair fell down around her face, obscuring what little light existed in the limbo and giving her already unnatural and cold beauty an ominous cast. She was emotionless as she gazed down upon her victim. That's what struck Sailor Moon as she struggled to establish contact with her numbed nerves and make her body work Viluy was about to snuff out a human life and it elicited no more emotion from her than if she was brushing lint from her shoes.

Establishing contact with her body proved to be hard work for her. The teen's brain felt like it was being pricked with a thousand hot needles and that sensation was blocking her from her body. She was just a brain now, alone and adrift in a boiling sea, with no way to move and death poised above her. At that, her vision barely worked, as did her other senses. Her ears buzzed and she was connected to nothing within her save that and her vision.

No, there was something else. She could feel her pink crystal through the haze reach out to her. It was still connected to her. It still drew energy from her and amplified that energy to power her Moon Scepter. Desperately Sailor Moon seized that. She clung to her connection with her crystal, focusing all of her fervent desire to push Viluy away until she could recover. The teen could feel the crystal respond, feel the power surging within her. But could she generate enough? Always in the past she had proven inadequate to the task, unworthy of wearing the mantle of her mother. And, in an instant, she could feel the surge peaking and dying away.

Viluy's finger touched her throat. No, she had to do it. Her mother depended upon her, depended on her for life itself. Her father depended upon her for the only happiness he would know in his otherwise sorrowful, solitary existence. Hotaru would never live to see sixteen if she failed. The Asteroids would be condemned to a scornful, animal existence, only to be hunted down and executed. The world itself would fall under the relentless march of Viluy and her androids should she fail. And then there was the image of Ami, condemned forever to live out her life as a slave computer program, not even worthy of being deemed human any longer. She couldn't fail. Too much depended upon it.

At the last moment, Viluy snatched her hand away as the fallen Sailor Moon began to glow pink. A crescent moon appeared upon the girl's forehead. Viluy studied it curiously, not knowing the implications. Suddenly she was hit full face with a burst of energy from the mark on Sailor Moon's forehead. The impact flung her away and she landed about thirty feet from the fallen princess, impacting hard on the surface of the limbo.

"This is a level of power not previously associated with this girl," Viluy thought, crouching on the limbo surface as she felt along her face for structural damage. "How do they do it? This defies all known scientific explanation!" Viluy scowled in frustration. "There's no way I can currently cope with an energy discharge like that. I'll have to fulfill my primary objective first, then devise something to neutralize that degree of power output to deal with her when she inevitably travels into the past in pursuit of me."

Suddenly Viluy's encoded mind flared with anger.

"She tore my face!" she thought, her hand discovering the gap in her synthetic skin and muscles that revealed the skull of gleaming reinforced aluminum alloy beneath. For a moment Viluy considered aborting the mission for repairs, if only because this hampered her ability to blend in with normal humans. "No. Better to do it now. The longer Queen Serenity lives, the more chance there is of her or her followers undoing all of my work."

The human android pushed herself up, flung open the Door of Time and plunged inside.

"I hate variables!" she swore in vexation as she disappeared into the centuries.

And, mere moments after she passed through the Door of Time, Sailor Moon's aura of power faded, leaving the senshi unconscious amid the swirling mists of limbo.

Viluy found herself in Juuban Park. She knew her destination year was 1984, but she wasn't positive of the location she'd find herself in. The pseudo-human paused to gain her bearings in the suddenly strange surroundings.

"Yes, I recall this place," Viluy said to herself. "But from where? The memory is - - is incomplete. The fault, no doubt, of my human linage. Had I been cybernetic from the start, the file could have been either retained or downloaded for storage. No matter. It will take moments to triangulate my position relative to the Tsukino residence and . . ."

Then Viluy saw her. A girl walking in the park with her parents, her blonde hair gleaming in the sunlight of the day. And, unbidden, Viluy felt emotional. She felt the anger and despair well up in her. Realizing that they were conditioned responses from her once human brain that was imprinted on her memory circuits, emotions associated with seeing the girl and her parents and the memories they triggered, Viluy tried to dismiss them and regain her detachment. But the emotions wouldn't go away.

For the little girl was five year old Wilhelmina Gustov, recently emigrated from Bremen, Germany, with her mother, Anna, and her new step-father, Motoki Bidou.

"Isn't this a pretty park, Yui?" the man asked the young girl. He was a wiry man of forty with slicked back black hair and somewhat handsome features. His black horn-rimmed glasses made him seem scholarly. The intense gaze in his eyes told those perceptive enough to see it that he was even more intelligent than he seemed.

The girl refused to acknowledge him. She was a healthy young child with striking platinum hair and nordic features that would be terribly cute if they weren't beaten into a scowl of disapproval. She wore a light blue dress and, coupled with her pale skin and hair, made her seem like an ice sculpture come to life.

"Yui, dear," Anna said, softly but with a stern undercurrent, "answer your father."

Anna was a woman who, at twenty, had been a popular beauty with an impressive facility for higher education. Big things had been predicted for her until, at twenty-five, she fell passionately in love with an up and coming robotics engineer and gave up her career to become Anna Gustov. Thought to be happy, particularly after the birth of her daughter, Wilhelmina - - Villy for short - - it was for only close friends of hers to know that the woman was indifferent to motherhood and chafing at being left behind by the academic community. It was only after her husband was implicated in a sex scandal with a minor - - a scandal more than one whisper said was arranged by Anna - - and her marriage a mere month after their divorce to Motoki Bidou, the Japanese industrialist her husband had been working with on robotics development that her friends began to see the extra heft to her still shapely figure, the stress lines forming under her eyes and the shrill, bitter tone to her laugh.

"My name isn't Yui," the child snapped angrily. "It's Villy!"

Her mother knelt down to the child. "We've been over this. We've been adopted into Motoki's family. That's the Japanese way. Your name isn't Gustov anymore, it's Bidou. And he's given you a new first name now, to go with your new life."

"I want to go home," scowled little Yui.

"But you spend so much time cooped up in your bedroom. Don't you want to get out and enjoy the sun and the flowers?"

"Home to Bremen! I want to go back to Bremen!" Yui spat bitterly.

"Bremen is in the past," Anna said, her anger rising. "Our life is here now."

"I HATE IT HERE! I HATE JAPAN! AND I HATE HIM! HE'S NOT MY REAL FATHER! YOU DROVE MY REAL FATHER AWAY!"

With the speed of a cobra, Anna struck her daughter across the mouth with her hand. Across the park, the synthetic humanoid that Yui had become flinched at the memory of the pain from the blow. Young Yui looked up at her mother, fearful and resentful, feeling betrayed and angry, and received no sympathy from her mother's pale blue eyes.

"You are my daughter," Anna proclaimed in a tone that would tolerate no argument. "You will live where I live and you will do as I command! If I say you will live in Japan, you will live here. If I say Motoki is your father now, he is. You have no say in this."

Across the park, Viluy recalled how much she seethed with rage that day. The words and the blow and the look of desperation in her mother's eyes told young Yui that she was not the most important thing in her mother's life, that her mother's fragile union with Motoki took precedence over her daughter, and that Yui would be sacrificed without a moment's thought should it help preserve her mother's alliance with Motoki Bidou. Viluy recalled she learned to hate her mother that day.

Motoki knelt down to the little girl and put his hand on her shoulder. Young Yui glared at him, petulantly challenging him to heal her the way her real father would have.

"It is said, Yui-chan, that to expend energy pining for that which is gone forever produces nothing but frustration and heartache," he told her. "The truly wise person focuses her energy into turning that which is left to her into something that can be enjoyed."

Hearing the words again, Viluy nodded at their wisdom. They had a profound effect upon her as a young girl. But so too did the callous, superior look she saw in Motoki's eyes that told her she was baggage that came with his bride, baggage that would at best be tolerated, but never loved because she wasn't Japanese and she wasn't his daughter by birth.

"I could do it," Viluy murmured absently to herself. "I have the strength and the speed now. I could cross the distance between us in a moment. I could kill them both before either one realized I was there." She felt her artificial throat constrict, another annoying residue of the emotional baggage from her former humanity. "It would certainly make for a different future. Perhaps - - perhaps even a - - a happier one."

Viluy shook her head suddenly.

"No," she admonished herself. "You are surrendering to emotional sentimentality. As painful as those years were, they shaped me into what I am today. To alter it would be long term counter-productivity. Killing them won't gain me what I seek."

Viluy turned her back on the scene of the parents and their combative child.

"Only killing Queen Serenity will."

Back in limbo, Sailor Moon suddenly felt a scratching at her cheek. It confused her, because she had no point of reference to judge it from. The last thing she remembered was Viluy's hands around her throat.

"No!" the teen gasped, lurching up wild-eyed. Her eyes darted around, but she could see no sign of Viluy.

"Sailor Moon?"

That was Diana. Sailor Moon turned to the sound of the voice and found Diana crouched next to her, looking up with concern.

"Did I startle you?" Diana asked sheepishly.

"Um," Sailor Moon heaved, "I guess. I thought someone was rubbing sandpaper on my cheek for a minute."

"Well, please forgive me for that," Diana offered. "I realize that licking a wounded pride-mate is, well, a bit instinctual and quite primitive - - but I didn't know what else to do to wake you."

"Where's Viluy?" the pink senshi asked, stroking Diana's fur to show all was forgiven. "She was - - last thing I remember was she was trying to choke me."

"Oh dear. I don't recall anything after she struck me. Thank heavens something stopped her. I'm not certain where she went, but if she's free, it's quite likely she's passed through the Door of Time into the past."

"Mom!" Sailor Moon gasped, lurching to her feet. She ran right to the Door of Time.

"My Lady, carefully!" screeched Diana. "Let me get a Time Key!"

Sailor Moon's hands flew away from the door knob on the Door of Time. In her panic, she'd forgotten how dangerous it was to venture in through the Door without a key. And she'd forgotten just how devious Viluy was.

"Diana!" the girl called out. "You don't suppose Viluy booby-trapped the door behind her, do you? So we couldn't follow her, I mean?"

"Doubtful, My Lady," Diana replied, a key in her mouth. "After all, the Door is her only means of returning to the future she's so adamant about scripting. It hardly seems logical that she'd damage it until she's returned."

"I guess that makes sense," Sailor Moon muttered. Diana looked up at her and saw the frantic worry bubbling just below the girl's surface.

"We'll get there in time, My Lady," Diana reassured her.

"Promise?" Sailor Moon squeaked.

"Yes," the gray cat answered. "Now concentrate on the moment in time to which Viluy has ventured."

Sailor Moon did as she was asked, clutching the Time Key so hard it made an impression in her right hand. She raised it to the knob and it turned on its own. The Door opened and the pair stepped through. In the blink of an eye, they found themselves on the boat dock in Juuban Park. Instantly Sailor Moon was off, Diana scurrying to keep up.

"Where are you going?" the cat asked. "Do you know where Viluy is?"

"No!" Sailor Moon called back. "But I know where she's headed! So all we have to do is find Mom and stick to her like synthetic adhesion and Viluy's bound to show up sooner or later!"

* * *

"Mama, I'm going now!" Usagi called out. Her little feet flew down the front steps and toward the gate.

"Wait, Usagi!" Ikuko called after her. Usagi's pretty face crumpled up into a frown, but she halted and turned. Her mother came out of the front door carrying two year old Shingo. "Now don't stay long at the park. Two hours at the most. And don't make me come get you!"

"Yes, Mama," Usagi sighed.

"And Usagi," Ikuko reiterated, "PLEASE don't talk to strangers."

"But Mama!" Usagi protested.

"Usagi, you can't automatically trust everybody. Please be careful."

"But Mama!"

"You can always stay here where I can watch you," Ikuko said menacingly.

Usagi huffed petulantly. "Yes, Mama."

"And don't wander off. Stay in the park."

"Can I go now? My friends are waiting!"

Ikuko sighed reluctantly. "All right."

"Go too!" Shingo suddenly protested, reaching out for Usagi.

"No, Shingo. You're too young to go to the park without Mommy and Mommy can't go right now," Ikuko patiently explained.

"Go too!" Shingo repeated emphatically. He began kicking and squirming. "Go too! Go too!"

"Well Mama says you're not going, Brat!" Usagi bellowed triumphantly.

"Usagi! Don't tease your brother!" Ikuko snapped, desperately clutching the squirming child. "Go on, have fun and BE CAREFUL!"

Usagi skipped down the street toward the park, the petulant howls of her brother ringing in her ears. As she walked, her sense of triumph over Shingo changed to frustration and disappointment that he would act that way. It seemed Shingo always wanted everything she had,  
always wanted his way and threw a crying fit every time he didn't get it.

"Little kids are such brats," scowled the four year old. Then her scowl softened into melancholy. "I wish Usa-oneechan would come back. All Mama does is look after Shingo. Usa-oneechan was nice. And she was so pretty." Usagi smiled at the memory. "I hope she finds all of the bad fairies so she can come back."

Half a block from the park, Usagi passed an alley between rows of houses. A sound made her stop.

"H-elp," she head someone gasp again. It sounded like it was coming from the alley. Peering into the alley, all Usagi could see was trash bins and pavement stones. Then, behind one of the bins, she saw the figure of a woman.

"Are you hurt?" Usagi asked, innocently venturing into the alley toward the figure. At first she thought it was an old lady because of the white hair she saw above the trash bin. But the closer she got, the more she realized that it was a younger woman with silvery hair like she'd never seen before. The woman was moaning and she had one hand over her face. "Did you fall down, Ma'am? I do that a lot."

"Help me," whispered the woman. Usagi saw she was dressed in some sort of strange clothes, much like the trash collectors wore, but tighter and more colorful. She moaned again as Usagi walked right up to her.

"Did you hit your head?" Usagi asked, now right next to the woman and leaning in. "We can go see my Mama. I bet she can fix you up. She knows everything. If you need me to, I can help you walk."

The eye that wasn't covered looked up at Usagi. It seemed strange to the little girl, but she couldn't understand why. Then the woman smiled at her.

Concluded in Chapter 12


	12. A Memory Of You

THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 12: "A Memory Of You"

By Bill K.

Ignoring the tantrum of a petulant two year old was becoming increasingly difficult for young Ikuko Tsukino. She asked herself again if motherhood was worth putting up with this. Shingo continued to thrash around in his playpen, howling like a banshee because he had been denied his way - - the cardinal sin to a two year old. It would die out soon. They always had. It was getting to that point that was the test. Ikuko willed herself to be strong.

Thinking of Kenji helped. Memories of his quick wit, his easy smile, his earnest tenderness when she was angry or frustrated or questioning her place in the world, made her glow with the love she felt for him. Thoughts of the way he supported her, the new ideas he opened up to her, the marvelous way he accepted her ability to teach him as well - - and the way he touched her just so in that special place that seemed to make her one with the universe for a brief moment, all helped get her past her son's selfish caterwauling. One day Shingo would grow up to be an approximation of Kenji. That gave her the strength to continue.

The door chime shook Ikuko out of her reverie. She moved to answer it. Then it chimed again and again. Soon whoever it was began pounding.

"Yes, yes, I'm coming!" Ikuko fussed irritably. This day was quickly becoming one where she should have stayed in bed. She opened the door and found a beautiful pink haired sixteen year old standing there.

"Is Usagi here?" the teen gasped frantically.

"Why do you want my daughter, young lady?" Ikuko asked suspiciously.

Usa went pale.

"Oh no! Luna-P's hypno-beam wore off!" the teen thought, gaping in horror at Ikuko. "She doesn't remember me!"

Usa felt her life flash before her eyes. Then, from depths unguessed, came inspiration.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am," Usa bowed. "I'm, um, Hotaru! From down the street! We just moved in! Anyway, I heard a policeman say that there was a criminal loose in the neighborhood! And I knew you had that cute little girl, and I wanted to make sure she was safe!"

"Oh no!" Ikuko gasped, her hand going to her mouth. "Usagi just went to Juuban Park!"

Instantly Usa turned on her heels and tore down the street, followed closely by Diana. She heard Ikuko call after her, but didn't make out the words. As she ran, she felt a loathing for herself inside her heart for terrifying her grandmother that way. Recriminations, though, were short-lived. She had more important concerns.

In the alley, Usagi peered in as she walked closer to the moaning young woman with the platinum hair crouched behind a trash bin. The four year old wondered if the woman had hurt her face, since her hand was over the left side.

"Did you hit your head?" Usagi asked, now right next to the woman and leaning in. "We can go see my Mama. I bet she can fix you up. She knows everything. If you need me to, I can help you walk."

The eye that wasn't covered looked up at Usagi. It seemed strange to the little girl, but she couldn't understand why. Then the woman smiled at her.

"You're such a good little girl to help me," she said. Usagi couldn't understand why her visible eye seemed so much like that of her favorite doll. "So full of love and charity - - even at this young age. What better way to lure you in."

The woman's hand slid away from her face. Usagi's big blue eyes grew wide when she saw the gleaming metal skull beneath the torn away left side around the eye. She screamed in terror and surprise, backing away from Viluy as the villain's left hand reared back to strike. Then Usagi stumbled and she fell backwards onto the pavement. Viluy loomed over her, her left hand cocked to strike. Usagi screamed again.

Then Viluy screamed as the world seemed to explode in light. It reminded Usagi of the flash from her father's camera when he took her picture on her fourth birthday. For a second she couldn't see anything but intense white. Then the light dissipated. When it did, Viluy no longer had a left hand. Movement to Usagi's left caught her eye and the pre-schooler glanced over. An energy disk shot through the air, then was caught by a hand draped in a white glove with pink trim.

"USA-ONEECHAN!" Usagi cried happily.

"Run, Usagi!" Sailor Moon barked urgently. "Run home! Now!"

Viluy lunged at the fallen girl with her remaining hand. Usagi squealed in fright, but the hand was intercepted by the energy disk again. Angrily, Viluy turned to Sailor Moon and Usagi took this chance to run.

"This ends, child!" Viluy snarled.

"I couldn't agree more," Sailor Moon replied.

Sailor Moon reared back and flung her tiara energy disk at the charging Viluy. Her target was the replicant's throat, her intent to sever the head from the villain's body. Perhaps she wouldn't die, being an artificial construct now, but it would certainly stop her murderous rampage - - and if she did die, well, right now Sailor Moon wasn't thinking that far ahead.

But just as suddenly, Viluy froze in mid-stride. Exerting her mental control over her tiara energy disk, Sailor Moon caused it to hover inches from Viluy's throat. But the replicant just stood in mid-stride, not moving and not reacting.

"You suppose her battery went dead?" Sailor Moon asked Diana.

"I'm not certain," the cat replied. "Perhaps the damage to her hand corrupted her internal processors."

"It was neither," said Sailor Pluto. To Sailor Moon and Diana, she seemed to emerge from the shadows of the far wall themselves. "I have stopped time around her. Viluy is no longer a threat."

They all heard a shoe scuff on pavement. As Sailor Moon turned to the sound, Sailor Pluto quickly receded back into the shadow. The pink senshi spotted Usagi crouched behind the corner of a building at the mouth of the alley.

"I thought I told you to go home?" Sailor Moon scowled.

"I'm sorry, Usa-oneechan," Usagi whimpered, emerging from the corner. "I was worried about you. What did you do to the bad lady?"

"Um," Sailor Moon thought as she reclaimed her tiara, "I, uh, froze her - - magically. She's not going to hurt you anymore."

Usagi broke into a run for her. Sailor Moon caught the girl and returned the child's hug. For a moment there seemed to be a surge of crystal energy between them, but it died quickly.

"Thank you for coming back, Usa-oneechan!" Usagi squealed. "I've really missed you since you've been gone!"

"Well it's good to be missed," Sailor Moon smiled.

"And thank you for saving me from the bad lady."

"That's what I do," she shrugged.

"Are you staying for good?" Usagi asked. Her big blue eyes pleaded silently and Sailor Moon flashed back to a hundred thousand guilt trips those big blue eyes had previously induced in her. God, she hated when her mother pleaded with her eyes.

"Can't," Sailor Moon replied.

"Why not?" Usagi asked and Sailor Moon knew from experience "the misty eyes" were coming next.

"It's not that I don't like you, Usagi-chan," Sailor Moon explained. "It's just - - I don't belong here, you know." The child seemed crestfallen. "And all my friends are in - - Fairyworld. And Mom and Dad are back in - - in Fairyworld, remember, and I - - well, I guess I need to be with them, you know? You don't want to make my Mom and Dad unhappy, do you?"

"No," Usagi mumbled forlornly. Then she looked up. "Will I ever see you again?"

"Oh yeah," Sailor Moon grinned. "I promise. It won't be for a long time, but I promise we will meet again." Usagi beamed at her and Sailor Moon could feel the girl's innate spell working on her. "Now you need to run on home. Your Mom's worried about you."

"OK, Usa-oneechan! Good-bye!" and Usagi ran off.

"And don't trip!" Sailor Moon called after her.

"I don't trip that much!" huffed Usagi. Then she promptly stumbled on the curb and almost fell.

"You had to get in that last shot, didn't you?" Diana said as Sailor Moon giggled to herself. Pluto emerged from the shadows again.

"You OK, Puu?" Sailor Moon asked.

"I am quite well," Pluto responded calmly, "thanks in no small measure to the efforts of you and of Sailor Saturn. You have my gratitude, My Lady, for that as well as for successfully stopping Viluy's plans. Your efforts did you great pride," and then Pluto's brow furrowed. She glanced down. "Until the last, that is."

Sailor Moon looked at her, perplexed.

"My Lady," Pluto asked with a clearly heavy heart, "did you intend to kill Viluy?"

The girl's mouth hardened. She was silent for a moment.

"I intended to stop her," Sailor Moon replied, perhaps a bit harshly. "She was about to murder a four year old girl, who just happened to be my mother. I didn't set out to kill her - - but if she died, it wasn't like it would be a big loss to the world."

Pluto's gaze fell at those words. Sailor Moon felt her cheeks flush and anger begin to well.

"Tell me you wouldn't have done the same!" the girl barked.

"I cannot, in all honesty," Pluto said, still looking down. Then she looked up and locked eyes with the girl. "But your mother would not have done so."

Sailor Moon felt her eyes sting. Her mouth tightened. Her victory of a few moments ago was now ashes in her mouth. Then Pluto reached out and placed a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Our youth is the proving ground in which we are allowed to make mistakes, My Lady," Pluto counseled. "The key to enlightenment is to learn from these mistakes. I bear you no ill,My Lady."

Sailor Moon's eyes cast down. After an awkward moment, she nodded her acceptance.

"So what do we do with her?" Sailor Moon asked, nodding to the frozen Viluy. "Are you going to keep her frozen like that forever?"

"No. I am incapable of such an expenditure of energy. Even now, I begin to feel the strain." Pluto turned and pointed the Ruby Orb at Viluy. The replicant faded from view. "I have created a loop in time in the thirtieth century. Viluy will be in her lab, dormant and undergoing a recharge of her android body's power cell. Those thirty minutes of recharge time will now loop upon themselves, going from the end to the beginning and back to the end, for all of eternity. Viluy will, in effect, lay dormant for the rest of time."

Sailor Moon nodded silently. Pluto noted that she seemed troubled. It saddened the senshi of time, but she knew it was for the best.

"If you are ready to return, My Lady?" Pluto inquired.

The girl nodded. With a turn of her staff, Pluto transported them all back to the thirtieth century.

* * *

When Sailor Moon and Diana exited the dimensional nexus into the real world, they found Saturn and the senshi waiting for them.

"So, did you get her?" Vesta asked point blank.

"Yeah," Sailor Moon nodded. "With a little help from Sailor Pluto."

"Hey, whatever works," Ceres offered. "That means the Queen is safe, right?"

"Obviously," Juno replied, "because everything is back to normal."

"And how would you know if things WERE different?" Ceres countered. Juno was about to reply, then stopped short.

"Yeah, how would I know?" Juno pondered.

"HA! Beat you for once, Smartie!" Ceres cackled in triumph.

"Wow, one in a row. I'm impressed."

"Don't try to minimize it! I beat you! I-yie beat you!"

"She said, making the mature response," scowled Juno.

"Ha ha, I beat you," mimicked Ceres.

"So the crisis is over?" Saturn asked anxiously.

"Yeah, Pluto's back in her spot and everything's back to normal," Sailor Moon replied.

"And you don't need us anymore?" Saturn asked.

"No," Sailor Moon said, curious about Saturn's behavior. The girl quickly reverted to Hotaru. "What's up?"

"What's up?" Hotaru howled. "I've only got two hours to get ready for my date with Yutaka tonight!" Turning, the girl bolted off at top speed.

"Oh, that's right!" gasped Sailor Moon. "All this bouncing back and forth between the past and the present, I forgot what today is! I've just got time to make it to the club for tonight's set!"

"You're singing tonight, Usa?" Cere-Cere asked as Sailor Moon reverted back to Usa. The princess nodded as she scurried off, Diana at her heel. "We're coming!"

"Goodie!" squealed Palla-Palla. "The princess has such a pretty voice! Palla-Palla hopes she can stay awake this time."

"I'll nudge you if you drift off, Stupid," Ves-Ves grinned. "Yeah, this'll be a treat. Usa sings almost as good as Aino-Sama!"

The footfalls of the princess thundered through the halls of the palace, a not unusual occurrence for the palace staff anymore. They smiled and nodded to her, enjoying her youthful energy and grateful that she was again seen in the halls of the crystalline structure. However, the thunderous footfalls were enough to alert someone else to her presence - - as if he needed anything else.

"Usa," Endymion called to her, popping his head out of a palace meeting room. "Can I see you for a moment?" The pink-tressed teen stopped in her tracks.

"Pop!" she howled. "I've got to get to the club! I'm singing for Hotaru tonight!"

"It won't take that long," Endymion replied calmly. Usa resisted. "As King to senshi, Sailor Moon - - please?"

Usa knew that tone.

"Ohhhhh, what did I do now?" she huffed in frustration. Endymion disappeared back into the room as she headed toward it, her arms folded across her chest and her shoulders hunched.

"Perhaps he's curious about your recent activities," suggested Diana. Usa unclenched instantly.

"You suppose?" she gulped. "OK, Diana, not one word about us going into the past!"

"For heaven's sake, why not?" demanded the cat.

"Because I'm still banned from time travel, remember?" fussed Usa.

"You were acting to save your mother, Sailor Pluto and all of reality!" Diana countered. "Surely those are mitigating circumstances if I've ever heard them."

"Yeah, well Pop's not going to see it that way," Usa maintained, "and what he doesn't know won't hurt ME. So keep quiet."

Diana sighed with frustration. "Sometimes you are the most exasperating child."

"Maybe you've been hanging around Mom too long," Usa told her as they entered the room. "You're beginning to sound like her now."

Inside the room with Endymion were Ami and Minako. Usa suppressed a giddy shudder, because it was the first time she'd seen Ami since witnessing her fate as Viluy's operating system in the alternate future. It was good to see she was all right. The euphoria quickly faded. All three adults focused on the teen as she entered and Usa suddenly felt like she was on trial.

"Pop, whatever it is, I didn't do it," she said in a pre-emptive strike. "And if I did do it, I had a good reason!"

"Don't you just love kids?" Minako glanced at Ami with a cynical grin.

"Flashing back to YOUR childhood?" Ami volleyed back.

"Hey, I was way more creative than that," Minako answered.

"I understand you and the senshi were out this afternoon," Endymion asked, the soul of calm.

"I suppose your spy-eyes caught us," Usa scowled. "We had a good reason, Pop!"

"Which was?" Endymion asked.

"We - - got a tip," Usa began, editing as she went. "We found an underground lab under that media shop - - and Viluy was running it!"

"Viluy?" Minako asked, suddenly all business. Ami grew serious, too, and just a bit anxious.

"Yui is still alive?" Ami demanded.

"Yeah! She's imprinted her mind into this android body!" Usa related. "And we found out she was going to go into the past and - - and change history so she would come out on top!"

"Where's Viluy now?" Endymion queried.

"Sailor Pluto locked her up in some sort of time loop thing," Usa answered.

"So how did you tumble to this?" Minako questioned.

"Um, Pluto warned me."

"Why you?"

"I don't know! I guess you'll have to ask her. Anyway, that's what happened."

And Usa waited for her scolding.

"Very good job, Usa," Endymion told her.

"You're not going to rip me?" Usa asked.

"You found a threat to the safety of society and you dealt with it," the king said. "That is what Sailor Moon and the senshi are supposed to do."

"But . . ."

"Usa, I held you back before because I didn't think you were ready," Endymion smiled. "You've proven over and over again that you're more than ready. You don't need my permission to help someone in distress or stop a threat to society." He reached out and grasped her hand. "Just keep me in the loop, OK? I am king, after all, and it would be nice to know that someone as dangerous as Viluy is lurking."

"Um . . ." Usa mumbled, stunned. "OK, Pop."

Usa noticed Ami and Minako grinning at her. She felt her cheeks flush.

"That's an interesting pendant you have there, Usa," Ami spoke up. "Where did you get it?"

"Um, it's Luna-P," Usa replied. "She kind of helped run down Viluy." The adults could see how crestfallen the teen became. "But I think I burned her circuits out."

"Would you like me to repair her?" Ami ventured.

"Could you?" Usa gasped.

"I still have the original production schematics stored. I doubt it would be very complex."

"Oh, Aunt Ami, that would be great! Thank you!"

"It would be my pleasure," Ami smiled. "I can even imprint the circuitry into a pendant instead of a ball this time, if you'd like."

Ami got her answer. Usa lunged over the table and hugged her. Just then, Queen Serenity and Makoto entered the room in an animated discussion.

"Well," whined Serenity, "I thought if one cup of sugar made it sweet, ten cups would make it super-sweet!"

"That's why we have recipes, Hon'," Makoto sighed with flagging patience.

"Oh, who needs to read an old recipe!" fussed the queen.

"Hon, how do you think I make all those dishes I've made over the years? The magic cooking fairy?"

"Hey, don't make fun! Fairies are real!" Serenity replied adamantly.

"Come on," grinned Makoto.

"They are!"

"You're kidding us, right?" Minako chuckled, eavesdropping from the far table.

"I've seen one!" Serenity protested.

"Yeah, and did this happen AFTER you visited Makoto's cooking wine cellar?" Minako grinned.

"I did!"

"You're certain?" Ami asked skeptically.

"I did! When I was a little girl! She did magic and everything!"

"You're sure you're not thinking of 'Peter Pan'?" Minako asked.

"She was real!" huffed the queen. "And she was the most beautiful woman I've ever seen! And she had these big beautiful red eyes and long beautiful . . . pink . . ." and the queen turned suddenly and gave her daughter the strangest look, ". . . hair."

Usa ambled over and gave her mother a hug and a peck on the cheek.

"I believe you, Mom," she said, then headed for the door.

The teen could feel five sets of eyes on her, but at that moment didn't care. All she could think of was a single heart-warming thought.

"She remembered," Usa thought.

THE END


End file.
